SHOW AND TELL

July in Context..

2011-07-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

I'm currently coming to terms with the fact that my favourite film Portra 400VC is being discontinued, it works so well with my Contax T2 and I happily tell half the people I meet this fact. So it might as well be online for all to see ; )

Here's a bunch of blurry photos from July, taking in Melt festival in Germany, lots of all night fun amongst giant cranes by a lake, Arthur the kitten and Alice Gold 'End Of The World' video shoot.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs 'Trouble' Video Shoot

2011-07-24T06:33:00.000-07:00

Have been meaning to post photos from the TEED 'Trouble' shoot for ages, but work, and the fun of summer have been getting way in the way. The video was directed by the very nice and very talented Adam's of The General Assembly in Tarzana, California. Apparently Tarzana is a porn production mecca FYI, and was named after Tarzan by the land's original owner. Thanks Wikipedia. The shoot was at the house of an amazing 90 year old grandmother and Jazz fan who seemed happy enough handing it over to a bunch of sinister valley occultists and random cowboys. An amazing day that ended a really fun week for me of filming out in Barcelona, followed by ATP in Minehead and then this one day in LA, I some how managed to fit in two burgers and one Taco Bell meal in that time ; )

Here's the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odNebyVXsZg&ob=av2e and a bonus Mike remix since he's such a dude - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wX3ekRndfg

Photos...

White Lies 'Holy Ghost'

2011-06-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a few of my favourite photos from the White Lies 'Holy Ghost' video shoot, this particular scene makes up one part of an amazing video directed by CANADA that was all shot on 35mm. Just the fact they were shooting 35mm blew my mind, let alone the whole recreating the sermon on the mount on a rock out to sea complete with a sheep. Was such a cool day, and we had a 2 hour lunch of squid and local wine, best day at the office ever I think.

The extras were from a local church re-enactment group, deeply religious themselves and the sight of the guys in beards walking across the water will live in my mind for a long time. Check out the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Orl42Y-c4I

Photos taken on Contax T2 (love it!) and Lumix GF1 (love it too!)

Oh! Inverted World - June 16th

2011-06-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

erm, well it's already happened and I was on my way to Ben Nevis so this is a bit late but here's the most recent flyer, featuring horses.

Oh! Inverted World - May 19th

2011-04-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

It's been two months of ridiculous sunshine since the last Oh! Inverted World, and now we're back at Old Queens Head with Dan Michaelson, I Am Harlequin and Professor Penguin, it's going to be ace. Here's a flyer, gets you in for £4, and features the Magnolia that's directly outside my window. For a few weeks in Spring it makes the view beautiful. Actually come to think of it, appreciating the seasons and the colours they bring really is another sign that I'm getting old....

Michael Kiwanuka 'Tell Me A Tale' EP Cover

2011-04-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

Amazing record and Big Active worked a bit of magic with my photograph, taken back stage at the Union Chapel in Angel, and the layout, win win : )

Here's a link to check out the lead track 'Tell Me A Tale', it's an amazing piece of soul imbued with such warmth and joy.

Japanese Voyeurs - Get Hole Video Shoot

2011-04-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a few photos from a day spent in a freezing cold, slimy bunker watching ballet and craziness for the 'Get Hole' video shoot. Directed by Matt Lambert you can check the video out HERE

Contax Round Up - March 2011

2011-04-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a jumble of photos from my replacement Contax T2, damn I'm such a geek about this camera. It's just the purest photo making tool I know, or perhaps just the laziest with it's minimal controls and beautiful lens. I've also just learnt that my favourite film Posertra 400VC is being discontinued, well merged with the 400NC, what this really means I don't know but it's another unfortunate milestone in the decline of film. I found one supplier in South Korea that's still selling it at a reasonable price so I got 30 rolls : )

This mess of photos is from March, an amazing month that saw me travel to Hamburg and Berlin with Michael Kiwanuka and freeze in-front of a room full of journalists at the Foreign Press Association benefit evening for Japan. After about 20seconds luckily I managed to snap out of it and gave my slide show of Lost Village photos, it was really an honour to be able to show them for such a good cause. Here's me giving the talk.

Alice Gold 'Runaway Love' Video Shoot

2011-02-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a few photos from the video shoot for Alice Gold's Runaway Love, directed by Tabitha Denholm. All day there was a spooky succession of ethereal and monochromatic shots leading to an explosive final shot of dance & colour.

It doesn't get better than Hatallica!!!

2011-02-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

I've never seen Metallica, pretty much never listen to their music, although I do own a glow in the dark tshirt of there's, but last week there was only one band I had to check out. HATALLICA, a Japanese cover band playing their first show outside of Japan at The Pipeline in Liverpool street. It was really dark, the place was packed but everyone was standing well back from the stage. After a few songs it was like things just clicked, amusement and caution turned into full on lets get the party started rocking out. They were great, the drummer spent half the time charging around the stage, and I was more into taking live photos than I have been in a while. Hey maybe I need to just shoot cover bands.

Fun times, and the drummer is a legend!

Oh! Inverted World - Feb 17th

2011-02-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Oh! Inverted World rides again this week, and I've been seriously slack making a flyer. But there's one good reason, it already sold out, so I was telling myself this is more like a souvenir poster or something. Wait, who am I kidding. I'm feeling seriously nostalgic for Japan at the moment so that probably influenced the subject matter, and I'm currently only reading books by Japanese authors or travel books from Japan. It's a narrow but awesome field. My favourite is Alan Booth's 'The Roads To Sata' which tells of his epic 3000km walk from the head to toes of Japan. It can be summed up by him waking up, walking, grumbling, drinking a beer, walking, grumbling, drinking lots of beer, having a hot bath, sleeping, but hidden in there is a deep love for both the country and the art of travelling alone. It has an amazingly romantic ending as well, ahhhh.

Currently reading Isabella Bird's 19th century tales of travelling in Japan, it's a bit random and quite bigoted, but viewed through a filter of old times understanding, and when you consider that she travelled alone through the rural parts of a Japan just entering the 'modern' Meiji era, it's all pretty incredible.

Ok, so this Thursday, ahem. It's going to be an amazing show, Grouplove riding in on a wave of saucy hype, Big Deal and also Chad Valley playing too.

First Post of 2011... da ...da

2011-01-24T16:04:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting one already for me, things kicked off with my well loved Contax T2 getting stolen with another camera, lenses and my swimming trunks (at least I got a bit of payback) from under my seat in a pub. Maximum bummer! Thanks for good friends, they waited at the police station where the desk person there was complaining about making a wrong life choice, saying she should have been a teacher. Dispiriting all round, they took me for food afterwards, it felt tasteless and cold, I took the tube home, for once lacking my customary bag but making a mental note of everything I'd lost. Ipod, house keys, shit house keys! and water bottle from the Japan trip. I'd lost it at least three times before but someone had found fit to track me down.

The next day I had a wedding to photograph, the couple are just 23 and I was thinking positive. I didn't really have to try, was such a beatiful occasion that I was swept along with the tide.

Anyway here's some of the last photos from my Contax T2, I'm currently trying to track one down that's not too pricey. So hopefully wont be the last of it's sharp and saturated gems.

It's 2011, have fun : )

Pumpkin & Pecan Pies : )

Me and the only and only Kevin King on a f**kin tank : )

Summer longing!

2010-12-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

With no end to the cold and snow in sight I've been looking back at some random photos from the summer. Here's two that caught my eye, very loosely connected by a photography theme : )

(Florence Summer 2010)

(Istanbul Summer 2010)

Winter Wonderland London Dec 2010

2010-12-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

So birthday plans fell apart this year as flights to Gatwick were suspended and we drank beers and played shit head at Weatherspoons. So instead of Berlin we pounded the streets of London searching out gourmet sausages, Gluwein and crazy Euro DJs at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland.

(click for bigger)

Oh! Inverted World - 2nd December : )

2010-11-30T04:31:00.000-08:00

We're gluttons for punishment, following on from the boat party last week we're taking it indoors at The Old Queens Head for Cibelle, Inca Gold and Saint Saviour : )

New Brit Award

2010-11-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

I took photos of the new Brit Award and dammit I didn't get one of me holding it! very foolish.

It's created by the guys at Design By Music, find out more at Creative Review.

My Fledgling Mini Cab Office Obsession

2010-11-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2010 involved a lot of voodoo party fun before sudden realisation that I had to be up at 8am for a course so I called around trying to find a cab. Freakin hard! no-one had any available so grabbed a beer and headed towards Holloway only to bump into this gem of a place. Things I noticed first, the pool table, sign saying don't smoke any illegal substances and most of all a down right wierd acculumlation of clutter, maps and posters. All faded and browning, but looking like a surreal film set or museum piece. If anyone knows of other incredible mini cab back rooms I'm now on the hunt so let me know.

Click on the images for BIGGER to admire extraordinarily random clutter. The clutter of heroes!

Leominster Horse

2010-11-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

o o o o Oh! Inverted World Boat Party o o o o

2010-11-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

Oh! Inverted World, the legendary (ahem), super fun (yay) club night is going nautical and rocking out at The Tamesis Dock in Vauxhall on 24th November.

Playing are Superhumanoids, Sunderbans and at least one more act to be announced soon.

Halloween '10

2010-11-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

This year the voodoo zombies were out to play...

The Violet May - File Under Artwork

2010-11-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Violet May 'Jennifer Lies' Single Cover. Photo is from a male bonding trip with my step-dad, the only losers were the fish : (...

Check the band out at http://www.myspace.com/thevioletmay

Pink Dogs & Music At OH! Inverted World

2010-10-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

This Month/This Week the Oh! Inverted World stage at The Old Queens Head shall be graced by the delicious The Shutes, the scrumptious Liam Bailey & the tasty Aaron Wright. yum!

Sadly no pink dogs...

www.ohinvertedworld.co.uk

Front & Back

2010-10-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

Nocturnal leafing...

2010-09-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

(click for big)

Alice Holt Forest

2010-09-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

In deepest Farnham is Alice Holt Forest. Was there to take some stills at a video shoot for Worship, editing the photos now so hopefully will have a lot to post soon.

Kozushima

2010-09-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

One of the Izu Shoto islands and only a couple hundred km from Tokyo Kozushima is much larger than some of it's neighbours but with only 1900 people and rising towards a scarred and barren volcano it feels remote and dominated both by geology and the ocean that surrounds it.

I camped there for a couple days and found virtually deserted hamlets filled with one eyed cats, incredible sashimi and two rival supermarkets competing for the limited business.

Interesting place to visit.

Terrenia, Italy

2010-09-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Retro stylings at this beach resort near Pisa in Tuscany with romanesque statues, Campari sodas, gellato, compulsory swimming caps and football tactics.

ciao!

Oh! Inverted World - 16th Sep

2010-08-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Schwing!

We've got Les Cadets, Ivan Ink & Pen, Toby Pellow and some very special mystery guests. Come along to the Old Queen's Head and party like it's 1992.

Wow, a horizontal flyer ; ) The photo is from my girlfriend's cousins wedding, this is the aftermath of the extreme egg and flour chucking at groom and best man experience.

Lost Villages, extended....Bonus Shots

2010-08-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

Lost Villages, my exhibition at The Orange Dot Gallery in London, has been extended until September 16th. It's open 10-6pm every weekday. If you're interested but can't get along I've put all the photos and some info up HERE.

I had to limit myself to 23 pictures so to compensate I will be posting some extra images from the trip, starting now!

Here are a few portraits from Japan, from baseball loving cowboys to a ship crew at rest and a policeman looking for 'American terrorists' in Sapporo. Just a few of the amazing people I met along the way, oh and my friend Aki picking wild vegetables around her grandparent's abandoned home. This is the same location as the photograph I've used in my flyer which comes from the entrance way into their old house.

Fisherman feeding scraps to the birds in Suzu, Noto Hanto.

Baseball in Fukuoka, The Softbank Hawks were terrible!

Aboard a small aggregates ship in Itoigawa port.

Sapporo, Hokkaido. Routine stop of suspicious foreigner (aka me, with beard)

Cat - Biei, Hokkaido.

wtf - vol.3

2010-08-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

Being French, burgers and night time frolics...

File under Southfields bug life

2010-08-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

I always seem to see these monster bugs when I stumble back home from the night bus, and bang there it is crawling infront of me. Stag beetles in suburbia, maybe I'll drop everything and spend my time tracking these critters.

Tottori sand dunes

2010-07-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'm sat at home scanning through a tonne of negs from Japan, quite a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon really, and thought I'd post a couple from the famous Tottori sand dunes. Almost deserted at 6pm, during the day there's a camel and flocks of tourists. It's also the location of the dunes featured in the film version of Kobo Abe's 'The Woman In The Dunes'. It is a stunning novel, bleak and visceral.

Kozushima

2010-07-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Kozushima, Tokyo prefecture, June 2010.

Bug lovin.

2010-07-18T05:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all nature lovers, check this out....

Bits.....March 2010 & July 2010

2010-07-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

Japanese village acrobats - 1905!!!!

2010-07-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

These moves are seriously fresh!!

Lost Villages, the exhibition...

2010-07-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm currently back in London choosing photographs for my exhibition Lost Villages, it's happening at The Orange Dot Gallery from 16th - 31st August. If you want to see old men lifting logs and freaky cats this one's for YOU.

There's a tonne of photos and info on my website http://www.samseager.co.uk/ if you want to find out more.

Best Cake Ever - FACT

2010-07-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

When you see a cake like this, you just know...

a) The person receiving it is well loved.
b) Everyone will feel a little wierd from all those chemicals.
c) It's the best cake ever, FACT!

Just look how everything around it looks so boring! Psychedelic cake wonderment.

I'm in Japan!

2010-04-05T04:49:00.000-07:00

As it says on the tin I'm in Japan, three months of travelling through remote across the four main islands in search of lost villages and towns. Places where aging and depopulation has left small communities to slowly fade away.

I'm posting images on my site so if interested head over to www.samseager.co.uk and check out the 'Japan Section'

Sam
x

Visions Of Trees

2010-03-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm currently watching the totally bonkers Snakes On A Plane and editing pictures of Visions Of Trees, check out their awesome tunes HERE.

We had an amazing day last Saturday enjoying the spring sun on Wimbledon Common, face paints, fireworks and a bottle of Hot Damn : )

Rock & Rollin with Semi Precious Weapons

2010-02-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

Damn these guys were fun on Friday night, the venue felt half empty until they sucked everyone towards the stage and unleashed some serious rock & roll moves. Great times!

Friday Fun...

2010-02-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

Praise be it's Friday, my brain has bascially melted and I'm er going to watch Lady Gaga.

Here's a shot that's in this months Fly mag of Ellie Goulding's last day in the studio. the producer mentioned that this was an upgrade, most of the record was made in his mum's house and it smelled of cat pee. cat pee!

and here's a random office, very box fresh...

and here's a shot from opening night of the gaga tour in Manchester, it was nuts!

Oh! Inverted World March 18th - Viva La Club Maraca!!!!!

2010-02-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

Hot off the press is the latest flyer I've laid up for Oh Inverted World, and the last one before I head to Japan for three months on 23rd March. Like OMFG! It's a bit mexican day of the dead and based on scan from an old Graphis (think from about 1966). Seriously Old Graphis annuals are the most amazing cultural time warps, if anyone has any they want to sell let me know. The few I have were being chucked at work and I rescued them from the tip.

OIW 18th March will be a massive party, there's sets from Slow Moving Millie, Ivan Ink Pen's first full band set and a mystery awesome headline act. wowzers.

The Maccabees _ NME Show / Brixton Academy

2010-02-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

Amazing venue, amazing band but the lights were soooooo low! I'm not talking atmosphere low, it was darkness!

Old Contax _ Michael Jackson Shrine

2010-02-15T13:24:00.000-08:00

I spent yesterday evening doing my normal Sunday thang, scanning in photos and watching a film (A Prophet - visceral, intense and strangely beautiful).

Had totally forgotten about these, some late night photos of an impromptu Michael Jackson shrine outside the London theatre where Thriller was playing. Was instantly struck by the sense of time and place I got from looking at them, it was a hot muggy summers evening, full of fun and heading home when we came upon this. I liked his music and all but felt so disconnected from the sense of loss some people so obviously felt.

Anyway 6months too late here's some shots...

Frisbee Fred Morrison RIP

2010-02-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Imagine inventing the frisbee? Finding a cake tin, throwing it around on a beach and then selling the idea to a company called Wham-O, it's brilliant!

Fred Morrison passed away today age 90, throw some frisbee love around this weekend.

The last tree

2010-02-01T14:11:00.000-08:00

I hope I haven't gone mad! but I just couldn't get enough of the Xmas trees camped out on the streets of London, here's the last one. Well until December anyway.

wtf...vol2.

2010-01-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

Tunisia - Summer 08

Southfields, London - Summer 09

Archway, London - Summer 09

Ivan Ink & Pen

2010-01-31T15:24:00.000-08:00

I spent last Saturday holed up in Herne Hill with Ivan Ink and Pen, his house was photograph heaven for me, all ramshackle, random and faded with a liberal scattering of artefacts and ephemera.

Check out his music www.myspace.com/ivaninkpen

OIW FEb 11th @ Hoxton Bar & Kitchen

2010-01-27T04:04:00.000-08:00

Haven't had a chance to design a new OIW flyer for while so settled down with huge mug of peppermint tea last night and got sophisticated ; ) It'll be an amazing show, come along!

myspace.com/officialsecretsact / myspace.com/magicandfur / myspace.com/thegoodnatured / ohinvertedworld.co.uk

The Plot Thickens...

2010-01-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

Location: Smugglers Way, Wandsworth.
Date: 16th Jan 2010.

Deep undercover on the search of evil masterminds our agent found this evidence, there's a worldwide plot. FACT!

Lonely Christmas Trees

2010-01-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

Whether standing proud or sagging and stumpy, be they noble, torn, twisted, dumped in piles, lacking needles, retaining baubles and even upside down... Spare a thought for those lonely Christmas Trees. Gone from our streets until another January comes around.

Power Cut

2010-01-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

We had one, these guys didn't. how fickle ; )

Women

2010-01-20T11:12:00.000-08:00

Chapel Club - Video Shoot

2010-01-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

Afternoon, it's a glorious sunny, freezing Friday. Here's a few shots I got from a recent Chapel Club video shoot. Thanks lighting peeps.

Islands 'No You Don't'

2010-01-08T04:06:00.000-08:00

Islands back with new song 'No You Don't, and Michael Cera is tripping out. wierd. wierd but good : )

Leominster

2010-01-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

Over the Xmas hols I was meant to catch up on scanning a ton of 35mm negs taken with my contax, I did about half a roll! doh : ) did manage to do a load of relaxing and eating though which I'm very grateful for. Was feeling very cheery so sound tracked the time off with a sprightly mix of the new Hidden Cameras album 'Origin: Orphan' and some Whitest Boy Alive.

Here's Nas texting on the train and me loving her and the light.

And here's some natty knit wear styles in a very dark Leominster knitting shop. Visiting grandparents tends to take you into uncharted territory.

Merry Xmas

2009-12-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

(Southfields)

(South Thames College)

(I studied here)

(Animal Calenders - Oxford St)

(Honda - Newman St)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs 1st Dec 2009

2009-12-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

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...

Autumn landscapes

2009-11-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

Ok so Autumn is undoubtedly evocative and I'm a sucker for those golden and red leaves/conkers and all that, although I've always been wary of piles of leaves. You never know when there's going to be a dog turd lurking at the bottom you might unceremoniously skid on. I also have a thing for barren, gloomy landscapes, I guess it's good for your brain, it's easier to think when you're not being stupified by a beautiful sunset. Here's a few shots I got back from a walk in the country (around Leominster in Hereford) and my garden (Southfields, London). Aaah Autumn. Wrap up warm and drink some port. xx

November Photos...

2009-11-25T04:47:00.000-08:00

I carry around my beloved Contax T2 everywhere and although it takes amazingly rich and saturated colour photos, always find that B&W images come out too dark. This is the kind of stuff that troubles me I guess, along with why can't we get decent Watermelons in the UK!!! Few weeks back I ran out of my fave colour film Portra 400VC and so all month have been using up my Kodak TX400 (sorry what a geek!). Got the film back yesterday and what a random selection of images! Here's a little slide show that takes in a Halloween night out, Oh! Inverted World November, A Sonic Boom at Shunt in Liverpool Street and other wierdness....

SamulNori

2009-11-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

SamulNori is the art of Korean Drumming and recently had the chance to see a rare UK performance by Kim Duk Soo one of the few masters around. It started with a series of incredibly complex rhythmic patterns from various regions of Korea that sent the drummers into an almost europhic trance. 2nd half was more performance based with acrobatic dancing and ribbons spun from special caps, amazing. Sitting in the front row it was so loud and vital at times it felt like you drifted out of the physical space of the theatre and were left aware only of the drumming and flashes of colour.

Japanese Voyeurs

2009-11-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

I love this band, like all the 15yr old me's dreams come true. These pics are from a shoot I did back in late summer. You can check their music out HERE

The Cheek @ Cargo

2009-11-16T05:20:00.000-08:00

Last Monday seems like last... who knows when. Since then I 've enjoyed one of the best Oh! Inverted World nights ever, spellbound by The Mariner's Children and rocking out to Treetop Flyers, experienced a bizarre underground sonic boom in London Bridge and felled a tree in my pyjamas.

Then last night whilst pondering what to do since finishing 30 Rock series 1 remembered, doh I've got to look through my photos of The Cheek from Cargo last monday! They've been touring loads and it shows in the new confidence to mix things up in their live playing. They have a general disregard for any stage banter and mostly sneer at the crowd whilst unleashing sleazy grooves and getting sweaty...

The Wishing Seat

2009-11-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

So you might have noticed it was recently Halloween, pumpkins kicking around, strange kids at the door demanding sweets and drunken adults running around dressed like cat woman. Ring a bell? Fun times some might say, evil pagan worshiping deviants others might clamour!

I got fake blood in my eye, drank way too much virgin blood and woke up hung over and on my way to a secret haunted house (pssst it's in Kennington). It's such a cool place, Simon the owner has dedicated 15 years filling it with macabre robots and secret crannies, go have a hunt for it. I was there to take photos for the UK launch of Lady Gaga's new version of 'The Fame' album, called 'The Fame Monster'. It allegedly comes with a free lock of her hair. Loads of fans had turned up to win prizes in a dance off (amazing!!!) and best dressed competition and all of them got the chance to have their photo taken. It was so much fun, everyone was lovely and a bit wacky races, all the pics taken in the 'Wishing Seat'...

Here's a slide show of my favourites, hope you enjoy...

G is for Goodtimes

2009-10-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

Denim + Leather = rock n' roll, it's a simple equation.

The Goodtimes are from Southend, last time I took their picture we were under a pier and a local yokel started mouthing off. The response 'Last night I had your mum', didn't go down so well, he said he was going to kill us. At this point I'm thinking save the camera, run for the hills and they're taunting him some more. ha, er goodtimes ; )
This time I agreed to take photos only on the condition we did it somewhere safe, not sure where Kensington at 11pm came into it. There's absolutely no light on the main drag, just expensive shops and no-one on the street, it's a fancy ghost town. Did finally find a couple cool spots down in the tube station and by Marble Arch...

Oh! Inverted World at The Old Queens Head

2009-10-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

Dawned on me today that I've been a bit of a hermit last couple weeks but that's about to change. Seeing Phoenix for the first time tomorrow at Brixton Academy, can't wait! Then Yuksek & Delphic in Old Street on Sat, I'm DJing with OIW crew on Monday at Ginglik and.... best of the bunch Oh! Inverted World returns to Old Queens Head on 11th November for a proper folky hoe down, we have Treetop Flyers, Mariners Children and Player Piano playing. nice, nice, nice!

I have a strange love of paper and have tons of different colours and textures stashed away up in a cupboard with a bunch of old maps and travel guides. Cue me grabbing the paper and everything else falling on my head! shit. Tidied up, got busy with my scissors and harked back to the summer...

Worship

2009-10-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a few photos from a shoot I did last week with a new band, Worship, taken on a roof in Kensington High Street, London. The building opposite has become one of my absolute favourites, it's offices for charities and local government and think it's a case of being so ugly it becomes likeable. For ages have wanted to get in there and take some shots of it's dusty corridors, 70s/80s office furniture and pot plants. In fact better get on that, have heard rumours that it's going to be demolished sometime soon.

The band wanted to go with a mysterious vibe, so thought would tie in with some religious connotations. Hence the red silk sheet from Shepherds Bush market. There's some great and cheap fabric shops in and around the market which serve the local Asian community and students living nearby. The market has a ghost town feel now that Westfield shopping centre has opened so pay it a visit if you can.

The last two, I got distracted and we started creating these mad shapes with the sheets. tasty : )

The Maccabees - Brixton Academy 03/Oct/09

2009-10-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

They say 'This is the best night of our lives' and I believe them : )

Powerful, stylish and evocative the atmosphere is electrifying, not all gigs can be like this and tonight is a milestone for The Maccabees. They've played in hundreds of different venues over the past few years, working away until finally reaching this particular pinnacle. Great to see...

you can see more photos HERE

Oh Inverted World - 8th Oct

2009-09-28T02:26:00.000-07:00

Oh! Inverted World is currently lurking in E. London, come join us on 8th October. Here's my latest attempt at flyer design, I used a new font for once ; ) OIW favourites La Shark are playing and headlining are 22 lady choir Gaggle. wow.

Shake it...

2009-09-28T02:22:00.001-07:00

Guess it makes sense, this is from 1957, but how damn rock & roll is this, mind-blowing. Jerry Lee Lewis sending the kids wild.

In Vogue

2009-09-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! I've been snapping a great new band from Suffolk, The Cheek, and Vogue have used a couple photos on their blog. check it out..

http://www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/the-vogue-blog/articles/090925-the-cheek-band-london-vogue.aspx

California Sep 09

2009-09-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

Just got back from two weeks in California, Having voted in the US elections that brought Obama to office, I was really excited to see what the atmosphere was like. It was two years and three months since the last trip for my cousins wedding and things had changed. The split between right and left is a gulf, the conservative media is in the grip of a paranoid mania, warping democracy with it's lies and exaggerations and poisoning any debate. The liberal media is too easily drowned out by this cacophony but then everyone pays attention when Obama speaks. All that rage is because people opposed to him seem so scared and young people love him. Hey he watches MTV and calls Kanye West a Jackass. I think there's still a lot of hope and belief that he can bring about some change.

That's the view from motel TV anyway. Visiting California is an intense personal experience for me, full of memories and family reunions. Seeing my old grandparents house in Davis where I spent summers growing up and now owned by strangers is a shock. But it smells the same and the figs growing there are just as sweet. Spent a lot of time retracing steps I would have taken with them, seeing some of their friends and eating, walking in the same places: The Co-op, arboretum, req pool.

Davis is basically an idyl, a liberal, bike friendly, sunny, healthy place with an active community and all those memories. It seemed a bit rougher around the edges and slightly more sun baked then I remembered it but I'm still satisfied.

The rest of California is just as mad as ever, from ridiculous wealth to street poverty, beautiful beaches, mexican food, a special kind of symmetry that you just don't get in the UK, and those huge expanses of wild space. Mountains, desert, trees and ocean. It's also incredibly friendly, patriotic and has plenty of my favourite Watermelons.

Here's s slideshow, click to view the images bigger....

The rainbow arch

2009-09-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

South Santa Barbara has this amazing rainbow arch. It's just opposite the beach standing proud...

and here's me and nas enjoying it, I jump wierd : )

Bronx Mania

2009-08-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

So new these guys were going to be shit hot, but now that they start their shows with Mariachi El Bronx it kind of lulls you into a relaxed mexican zone. Just when your wondering where your burrito got too and BAM! still us hyped up and crazy as always and everyone looks happy. Here's some general carnage and crowd mania. Sat 25th Aug @ Village Underground / Shoreditch

Emmy The Great...

2009-08-19T03:16:00.000-07:00

Just heard a new track 'Edward is Dedward' by Emmy The Great, it's rollicking! Check it out at http://www.myspace.com/emmythegreat

And this is a good excuse for me to post my favourite pics from press shoot I did earlier in the year, and that aren't on my site yet ; )

Joshua Radin

2009-08-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple photos from recent shoot with the American Singer Songwriter Joshua Radin, he'd landed up in the uk and was filming a video shoot at Ginglik in shep bush, with lots of twinkly blue lights. It used to be a public toilet and kind of retains that level of glamour. wait sorry, that's way too harsh it's actually a very cool place, but a mind f**K to try and find the entrance..

OH INVERTED WORLD - Aug 09

2009-08-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

the amazing, the wonderous OIW @ Old Queens Head! The day I got back from Berlin so feeling super relaxed, happy and sleep deprived and we've got the best line up so far (in 18 months of nights!) Dufflefolks, Babe Shadow, She Keeps Bees, a totally rammed place and Morrisey in the house. I've still got a splinter in my finger from moving tables to remember it by. Here's a slide show, click for higher res images. There all a bit dark and blurry, kind of like my memories of it...

Berlin Whoop Whoop

2009-08-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Have just come back from three amazing days in Berlin for my friend's birthday. It's like London minus the crap, bankers and cramped conditions plus amazing weather, happy people, loads of open space, cheap delicious beer, and big lovely lakes (Krumme Lanken!)

nothing really beats getting a six pack, picking your own swimming spot and diving off a bit ol' tree. Felt like taking lots of pictures and had just got new supply of Portra 400VC so since I've now signed up to Picasa here's a slide show to check out...

London Bridge Festival - Photo Comp

2009-08-12T08:47:00.001-07:00

Entered this comp, part of The London Bridge Festival, recently and was shortlisted. Check out the winning photo and get info on the festival HERE

Here's my photo...

Some wooden boards had been put up around a construction site and the sikh builders were doing some crazy maths in chalk all over them. Reminded me a bit of a Robert Frank type shot from his book The Americans.

I was composing the shot and this super stylish girl walked past, right through the frame. it was set up at 1/60sec but think the blurring and grainy feel of the 1600 Fuji neopan film worked well. Here's the board alone. wish I'd kept it, was like some kind of temporary installation art.

Delphic - 'This Momentary' (video)

2009-07-28T04:12:00.000-07:00

check out the video for new Delphic single 'This Momentary', directed by David Ma and filmed in and around Chernobyl.

it's pure beauty, the washed out colours, camera panning and stunningly composed shots just knocked me over. There's this powerful tension of stillness v movement that permeates through it all and relates to the music and drum peals perfectly. oooh

MY HAND......

2009-07-27T04:06:00.001-07:00

IS super long and thin! This thought hit me as I was testing the strength of a spot light while shooting the rather amiable Joshua Radin @ Ginglik / Shepherds Bush. Pictures up soon...

She Keeps Bees

2009-07-22T02:40:00.000-07:00

If your free 11th August, then this will be fun, at the newly soundproofed but just as gorgeous Old Queens Head, Angel x

WAR CHILD @ Tabernacle - 15/07/09

2009-07-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

So the fabled Tabernacle (Notting Hilll) has re-opened as an arts and performance centre, it looks amazing. The main room has vaulted carved beams, it's like a viking hall or something.

Where better to have 4 buzz bands playing, the highlights.... We Have Band, amazing vocals and crowd reaction. & The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band - wow, like a 70s Funk happening with flares and happy vibes. smiles all around.

Here's some photos....

The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band

We Have Band

Filthy Dukes

Soldiers for justice

Filthy DukesCrystal Fighters

Filthy Dukes Album Art

2009-06-23T02:44:00.000-07:00

FILTHY DUKES - 'NONSENSE IN THE DARK' - ALBUM SHOOT

Was commissioned to shoot a 5ft wide giant wooden eye on location in Winspet Quarry, near Swanange. The resulting images were used as cover and booklet art for the Filthy Duke's debut album 'Nonsense In The Dark'.

An access road would have helped, the rain, mud and darkness definitely didn't but with Ollie from the band, art director Stuart and Kelly from Polydor fighting the elements it all came together. Pint of local ale in the pub that night to finish and three hours sleep in the back of the van on way back. Job done, brilliant!

check their music out HERE, and there's some live shots from a recent gig at Matter, London, included below.

Location: Winspet Quarry, near Swanage

Client: Polydor Records

Album: 'Nonsense In The Dark' (2009)

UKRAINE (march 08)

2008-06-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

...This is a journal and photographs from an interesting week in Ukraine with my partner in crime Doug.

Day 1)

4am start and straight to Stanstead, all goes smoothly and I’m learning how to deal with the monster snowboard bag. The green and brown plaid stands out in Rzeszow, Poland, where it’s raining and pretty grey. The airports a small tin can with just our plane on the strip. We jump on a bus to the railway station and after the fuss of exchanging some pounds for Zloty we discover that a ticket can be paid for with the gold certainty of a 1£ coin.

At the station the ticket seller looks like a left-behind communist dominatrix, all starched military tunic, severe expression and red washed hair. She declares our intended train to be fictitious and suggests going to Przensyl instead which is closer to the border and is pronounced almost exactly like Rzeszow. It’s a little confusing but with our fingers crossed the train sets off. Luckily there’s an old German backpacker on the train who’s also going across the border to Lviv and confirms it’s the right train. He wants to see the town of Przensyl, says it might be interesting then looks at his wikipedia print out and concludes ‘no nothing to see’ hmm. Quote of the day, ‘I’ve got bread’. Doug keeps repeating this mantra when we realise we haven’t had any breakfast. True he does have some bread, the end of a wholemeal roll. I win though having wisely purchased a monster banana at Stanstead, ha!

We arrive at Przensyl and go figure there’s another extremely unhelpful ticket vendor who just refuses to sell us a ticket. He writes down number 4 so we go to window four and she just pulls down the shutter. This is looking tricky! We have an inkling that perhaps we should just go to platform 4 and are pretty annoyed that the train is apparently leaving in 8hours time. We look for different options, the pasty looking guy saying he’ll drive us across the border (and not rob us) doesn’t seem like a good choice. Luckily after brushing him off the very first bus driver we ask, to our and his surprise is actually the once daily Lviv bus. He’s in a rush to go and shouts at Doug to stop faffing about and get on board. We’re super happy, the only people on this big, old and rickety bus bumping along to the border.

First sign that we’re close to the border is a line of 100s of trucks all lined up in a queue. The one that stands out is a shiny TNT delivery van stranded amongst cattle trailers, broke down caravans and containers of scrap metal. They seem to be searching one truck every 30mins, the drivers look aware they’re fucked and in for a long wait. At this point a guy jumps on the bus and begs for a lift, after a long debate with the driver he slinks to the back only to get stern lectures from both the Polish and Ukrainian authorities. More on their welcoming nature in a bit. The driver has a mystery assistant who suddenly appears and helps by lifting barriers and guiding us through short cuts. We’re the only bus and speed through until we reach the Ukrainian section.

The border police come on board, give us some suspicious looks, especially Doug who they seem confused by. We’re asked to fill out forms, which would appear easy enough but between us we fail to write down the answers they want. Cue four burly guys in bearskin hats and one lady all shouting at Doug and then me in turn, they make us write journey type as ‘Private’ and the coach registration number down in the section that says departing flight number. Once that’s done we’re taken off the bus and two guys are going through my shit. Everything looks funny to them, especially the sun block and the fact we’ve got snowboards. The one who speaks English helpfully explains that there’s no snow at all in the Ukraine, or sun for that matter. Well hooray, that just negates the reason we came anyway. It’s a pretty nerve racking experience but it quickly becomes clear they just want to have a cheeky gander at our stuff. So my helmet gets a few knocks to check it’s construction, they sniff my face cream etc. And after all that we’re waved off, it’s a big relief! After two hours we’re in Lviv, 5 hours ahead of schedule.

There’s a cool sounding restaurant in the guide book, a beacon of Ukrainian independence that is decorated with items that pre-date Russian rule of the country. After our banana and bread diet and 24 hours of travelling we’re hungry! The walk to the restaurant gives a good view of the city centre, it survived the Nazis and Stalin pretty intact and has lots of beautiful Italian designed buildings. Would be nice to have some more time to explore it. The food is so tasty, we have 4 courses, beer and vodka all accompanied by the singing of drunken businessmen and the bill comes to £10. Back at the hotel have a pepper vodka night cap, which does what it says on the tin and is unsurprisingly very peppery.

Day 2) (Scooby Doo!)

Slept like a big ol’ sleepy log and tucked into a bottomless bowl of porrige with raisins, toast and cheese and gritty coffee. Oleg our driver for the trip up to the mountains came at 8am, I was expecting a burly buzz cut sporting monster and was disappointed. Oleg is a polite, slightly frail looking and nicely bequiffed young man. After his radio died we played my ipod through the car stereo, listening to QOTSA, Bo Diddley and MGMT on the drive into the back country. 4hours across open prairie interspersed with small towns, golden church spires and the occasional traffic police. The landscape is made up of wide undulating hills, dark soil, mossy grass and thick forests. Most of the people we saw were old, wrapped up in warm, dark clothing on their way to church. The road is bumpy, snaking into the distance, the bright sun reflecting on pools of water turning it into a shimmering sliver of water or molten lead. Every so often there’s a flurry of snow but there’s nothing on the ground so with the border soldiers words well remembered the debate in the car is whether there will be any snow on mount Stog.

We get to Yasinya, the last village before Dragobrat and there’s a ‘problem’ the jeep that’ll take us up the mountain is late so Oleg leaves while we wait in a small roadside bar. Everyone inside stops as we walk in and say hi. There’s rousing Ukrainian folk on the stereo, three guys in the dark back room, a stuffed cat and two women at the bar. Think this is a bit of a first, having two random English guys just wandering in. Anyway it’s all good and we get beers and sausages. Two kids come in about 11 or 12 and after one gets a good hiding from what I assume is his dad they share a beer and smoke. Child care, Ukrainian style!

I go out to check if the driver is coming down and there’s this guy about 28 or so who starts shouting at me. This is then followed by much laughter with his mate and then more shouting and random gesticulation. I show him our booking details for the hotel and it does the trick. My huge board bag is strapped to Misha’s Lada 4x4 roof and we head off. There’s Russian dance on the stereo as we storm up the mountain. There’s no road, just a rough track broken up with boulders, snow drifts and the odd stream. We’re bouncing around and trying to admire the view without paying to much attention to the intense storm that’s blowing and deep gullies that occasionally loom at the side of the track. After getting up the hardest part Misha cranks up the music and barrels along the path people carrying bags and on their skis dash and scramble out of the way. Doug and I are laughing, he’s not, instead sporting a look of extreme psycho concentration. That’s it, after two days travel we’re there, stoked to be on Mount Stog and surrounded by tons and tons of snow.

We drop our stuff, get shouted at a bit by the hotel owner but it seems like this is perhaps a sign of friendliness. Then it’s onto the slopes where it’s snowing a blizzard and two of the three lifts are closed. The ticket seller replies ‘Niet’ to all our attempts to buy a pass so we just walk up the mountain and have a few runs. This is followed by glut wein, beer, soup & bread and we build a nice kicker in some soft powder snow, taking turns to launch grabs and 180s off of it. It’s fun and breathing in fresh mountain air with snow coming down and dark forests all around there’s a real sense of liberation. Grab a quick shower, there’s a dinner of soup and meat with tasty rice. There’s some kids on the pool table who we attempt to ask if we can play, their answer ‘maybe not’. We have the advantage of no set bed time though so ha! First though it’s vodka time under the watchful tutelage of the owner and his family who seem to find our attempts to master the drinking etiquette exceptionally funny. They bring out Salo, Ukrainian raw pig fat that they smoke and flavour with garlic and serve thinly sliced. It’s interesting, tastes a bit like bacon flavoured butter and gives the distinct impression that it’s not exactly the healthy option. We play 2 hours of pool and then hit the sack.

My bed’s about 6inches too short and hard as hell but I fall asleep ok only to be woken by a very sudden and loud bang. The wind is so strong outside that it forces the window open! For a second I thought that the whole thing might have blown into the room and taken out Doug. Luckily that’s not case.

Day 3)

Wake up and it’s still snowing so after trying to use a Tbar up a steep slope into strong winds and failing then getting stuck on it when it breaks down we build another big jump and cane it all morning : ) After that Doug gets up on this huge pile of snow and is about to do a massive jump down into a steep slope when a huge lump of snow and ice starts slipping off the roof directly above him. There’s some people watching and everyone turns around. Doug looks up and dives to the side, it just misses him. This deserves a beer so we head to the small ski lodge and eat sausage and mash, Ukrainian style. A beginner snowboarder who’d been trying the jump too, from Donetsk in the East of the Ukraine comes with us. She’s cool and tells us about the language and cultural divide in the country between Russian and Ukrainian speakers. We brave the Tbars and feeling knackered and with the wind making snow move up the mountain I fall on my head, not fun.
Dinner tonight is Ukrainian sausage rolls in cold gravy, followed by about ten games of ping pong and off to bed to watch the only English channel, cartoons! Pink panther, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry it’s retarding our brains… The heating is permanently on in the room so it’s starting to really pong. The toilet is especially hot so when you walk in the air’s a warm soup of all the recent smells we’ve concocted. PS the toilet paper is seriously not cool, like sand paper, if I spoke Ukrainian I’d demand to know why.
Words we learnt:
Pirvo – Beer
Kleb – Bread
Dobredien – good day
Da – Yes
Niet – no
Dakyuyu - thanks
Slightly limited especially as I’d bought a language book a month before coming but sadly it remained unopened. Still the universal use of random sounds and gestures and well timed nodding is getting us through ok.

Day 4)

Wake up and every inch of my body is in pain. Worst of all I can’t move my head without using my hands because my neck muscles are so sore. (This continues for the next three days). Luckily though I’d persuaded Doug to swap beds so was feeling rested after 9 hours sleep. Stumble downstairs to a breakfast of three fried eggs, a gherkin, bacon fat and a slice of fried ham. It had snowed during the night which was gratefully received as it meant more fresh powder. Rather than tackling the Tbars we decide to climb up a hill behind the hotel, an expanse of virgin powder. It’s nice and steep too so boarding down you got an amazing feeling of lightness and flight. We repeated the trek up through a foot of snow 4 times and then went and had beer and shaslik. The wonderful world of the Shaslik is an oversized lamb kebab, big juicy pieces of lamb meat flavoured with garlic and spices, umm ummm. They cook them out on a bbq pit in the snow, made to order. After some more skiing went on a beer cruise, well of the three places serving, one is outside at the bottom of the slope, bit chilly but they play 80s hair metal. 2nd is in circular hut that looks vaguely Viking and has a charcoal pit in the middle and chunks of Salo hanging from the roof to cure. Very real! Made even more authentic by the pair of drunkards hanging out there and the freezing temperatures! The owner suggested a shaslik and it would have been rude to refuse, it was even tastier than the one earlier and came with special garlic ketchup. Dinner back at the hotel is fried potato, sausage and garlic, simple but surprisingly good.
There’s a really cool old guy at the hotel who’s the caretaker and from Romania. He calls us ‘London’ and ‘Hong Kong’ which occasionally comes out as ‘Congo’ and ‘King Kong’. Sometimes for variety he favours ‘Fisher’ and ‘Kasparov’ after he caught us partaking in a cheeky bit of chess. He’s never been skiing and has a strange habit of sucking sugar from a cafe style sugar dispenser. Which is a nice sight when you look around and he’s suckling from the sugar teat right next to you. This evening is the first without clouds, amazing views down over the lower Carpathians and up to the peaks of Mount Stog. So I run to the nearby hill with my camera to catch the sun dipping behind the mountainous skyline. Two skiers come by, doug says hi and they stop. They’re freestyle skiers who lead guided trips. Tanya speaks English and we have a nice chat about why we’re there, where the best skiing is in the area. They say we should visit the Caucasus mountains in Georgia where the peaks are over 5000m high, crazy! Maybe that’s next years trip! Tanyas friend is sporting a rasta hat ‘made in the Caucasus mountains’. They ski off and it starts getting seriously chilly so we run back to the hotel and had a hot shower, felt great and much less stiff. After dinner watch some cartoons and drink more damn fizzy water. There’s a total lack of still water here and since the guide book says you shouldn’t drink tap water because of lead piping. Warm, day old fizzy(ish water) is not nice, it’s official!

Day 5)

Another dodgy night sleep in possibly the world’s worst bed complete with inch thick blood stained mattress. Wait Doug’s is worse ha! And boy am I happy that I persuaded him to swap after the first night. Breakfast today is three fried eggs and half a gherkin. The food at the hotel’s been tasty but everything is lathered in oil and sour cream. This plus all the pig fat (and beer) is undoubtedly the cause of the mini pot-belly I’m cultivating. Skiing the day before was pretty cool but we’re both tired. Walking up mountains in the snow is tiring, it’s official. So after a few runs we just get on down to some serious relaxing and Ukrainian beer drinking. Entertainment is provided by a half crazed dog running up and down the T-bar track, jumping on peoples’ snowboards, causing a massive nuisance and several people to fall on their butts. Genius.

THERE’s A MASSIVE JOLT! I’m writing on the train to Kiev (Day 6) and it just started with a huge strain, like an elastic band suddenly loosened. The train looks ancient, made in a time when good looks took a back seat in the construction of this steel clad behemoth. It’s monster carriages stretch on for what seems like a mile, each equipped with two attendants and a surplus of lacy curtains and dimly illuminating light fixtures.

Back to the day, sorry this one is probably the least exciting. It’s capped with more beers (the hotel has a whole two choices woo!) and 11 games of pool, of which I lose about 9. So with that we
schlump up to bed and look forward to waking up more rested than today.

Day 6)

It’s out last day on Mount Stog and it starts in the customary misty fashion but soon clears up and it’s the first really bright and sunny day. There are amazing views over the Carpathians; it’s covered in blankets of dark forest disturbed by snow capped peaks and the odd wooden house. We take our last trip up the tormenting t-bar and walk to the very peak of the mountain for one last run down. It’s ten minutes of glorious riding all the way down to the hotel through virgin powder. It’s an amazing feeling of freedom, floating down the mountain, with the effort and sore legs of the last five days receding into the past.

We pack up and finally get out of seriously pongy room, after catching a final episode of Scooby Doo. What the hell is going on in the world?.. all we’ve had over the last week is shabba shabba doo and Scooby snacks! Heading down the mountain sadly isn’t as wild as the upwards journey with the snow and wind lashing down and Misha our crazed driver wrestling with his Lada. At the base of the mountain it’s into a normal car, ‘Mashinyu’, and on to Ivano-Frankish. The driver’s got shades and we race along stopping at his house to pick up a plastic bag and he glares at his kid, who runs away. It’s a weekday so everyone’s out and about on apparently random business such as:

1) Chasing a chicken
2) Selling apples from a bucket by the road
3) Smashing rocks
4) Walking around aimlessly sporting a huge fur hat. (If a fur hat is really really wide is it really that much warmer?)
5) Hanging out with a bunch of leather clad, shade sporting men by a Mercedes by the river. Hmm looks dodgy.

Pretty entertaining really. We make it to the town and grab some tasty lunch in a grand old hotel. I have Georgian chicken with garlic and olives and gherkins. Doug has a chicken Kiev for desert, this attracts some confused looks from the waiter. We get to the station, walk to carriage 12 of the huge train and get into our 1950s time capsule (Coupe). The old couple next door are playing rousing Ukrainian folk classics, Oompahh Oompahh, and the toilet looks like a medieval torture dungeon. The Sun is just about finished setting and we’re racing past steppe plain and occasional villages and factories. Looking out the window there’s a stark line of fire outside as someone clears their field. It’s all pretty post-apocalyptic, very nice. A lady comes by offering chai. We’ve grown to love tea with lemon and no milk after about 30 cups, having been served two mugs every breakfast and dinner for the last 6 days. I’ve learnt that drinking beer at the same time as tea is a little confusing.

Ok I’m signing off to have vodka and watch super bad. But why oh why is the carriage so crazily hot! Every enclosed space in this country has it’s own over-worked radiator and it’s pretty fucking annoying. On to Day 7..

Wait actually after writing this some more interesting stuff happened. In the 4 and a half volt half light of our ‘coupe’ we played Black Jack and drank first one bottle of vodka, then beer and then a 2nd 250ml bottle of vodka all while slowly realising that Black Jack involves zero skill. Feeling a bit misty eyed and fed up of crashing through the heavy steel doors that separate the carriages I sent Doug on the foolish mission to get a 3rd bottle! 10 mins go by, then 20 and finally after about 30mins I’m lying there getting a little worried so start heading up the carriage. Doug comes running down from the other direction and says ‘some Ukrainian gangsters kidnapped me and they want to meet you and drink vodka’. That sounded like just about the worst plan ever so wisely we lock the door tight. Basically these 3 or 4 shady characters realised he was English and started pouring Doug and themselves vodka shots. Doug related the one particularly dodgy character, sporting an ear to mouth scar was getting rowdy and the leader of the gang suggested they all come to our berth. Doug wisely said he’d err fetch me and left his vodka and two pork cutlets. What an honourable sacrifice!

Day 7)

The rest of the journey passed without problems and we woke up on Day 7 drawing into Kiev’s grand central station at 6.45am. Super busy with people rushing around through the chandelier filled halls, we tried to get a normal taxi but no-one would take us and eventually we willingly got hussled by a guy in a huge yellow van. Got to the 18 story Hotel Rus and they did a huge favour and let us check in. It was a huge relief to us, still pretty tipsy and more than a bit confused after being up on a mountain for 6 days and carrying snowboards.

The hotel Rus isn’t old but has a nice soviet style with tiny rooms and dark suited mobsters hanging out in the lobby as ‘security’. The rooms view is incredible though, overlooking the Olympic stadium which has room for 100,000 and the sun just rising over a dusty Kiev. Looks like it’ll be a beautiful day. We grab two hours sleep and during that time manage to develop a horrific hangover, perhaps this is what gives us the genius idea to visit the classiest hotel in town to eat breakfast on the guide books recommendation. Curses! Without asking how much it’ll be I get stuck into a plate of fruit, juices, yoghurt and a plate piled high with pickled herring and salmon. It doesn’t go down well, immediately start feeling queasy and the room is gently swaying from side to side. After a week of the filling but reliably stodgy food at La Romany and a complete lack of fruit and vegetables except beetroot and gherkins it’s a bit of a shock. The bill makes me feel even worse, what I thought is a copy of the receipt is actually the second receipt. It’s a cool 180 grivna each, £18, and the waitress doesn’t bother to bring back the 40 change or Doug’s omelette either. All good though it was a classy place with some interesting guests. A gentleman behind us was casually mentioning that he’d single handedly sorted out the Slovakian financial system. The Premiere hotel, a place where deals are made, pleasantries exchanged and old times reminisced.

We set off on the 2km walk to the Caves Monastry, everything I’ve read says it’s the one tourist draw, a UN heritage site no less, that we have to visit. On the way, almost everyone we pass is carrying a flower or bouquet of some description and all the underpasses (which are like mini cities filled with shops and restaurants) are stuffed with flower sellers. It’s puzzling but pretty cool, turns out it’s a national holiday – International Women’s Day, a carry over from the USSR days. The Caves Monastry is a huge complex. Buildings from 1100 – 2000 and a multitude of museums exhibiting everything from monks washroom items to glittering Sythian gold. The real treat however is the actual caves. Narrow underground passageways and subterranean churches all tens of metres below the surface.

Founded by two monks in the 11th century the bodies of these and subsequent monks are placed along the corridors and in small rooms where the cold dry air has mummified them. As the holiest spot in the whole of Ukraine it’s visited by thousands of pilgrims and monks who wander down the corridors carrying candles, chanting and bending down in the darkness to kiss the monks coffins and exposed hands. The monks really smelt, a bit like pee pee, and with their brown tunics and long beards it was some serious medieval shit! If anyone who appeared unfaithful, aka us, ventured into some of the extreme holy areas where people were singing or in silent reflection the monks would quickly block their paths. Intriguingly they blocked our paths to some seriously spooky dark corridors, who knows where they stretched too! The overall effect was moving, there was a tension, the strong feeling that you didn’t belong and were witnessing long held traditions and beliefs that are greater than the interests of a curious tourist. Still, despite the hangover and occasional feeling of nausea it was an amazing and thought provoking experience.
Emerging into daylight we hit up an overpriced Georgian, aviation themed restaurant. All the staff wear air stewardess outfits, nice! I had chips and kebab, we got out of there and walked around Podril, a funky studenty area of the town. A guy comes up to us asking for money, grinning and says simply ‘I’m a Russian hippy and need money to go to Chicago,’ sadly for him we disappointed. Next we went on a furnicular train which the guide book said was fun. Interestingly enough it really wasn’t fun, everyone looked pretty glum as it slowly eked it’s way down the hill. Still at the top there had been some ridiculously stunning views over the city, shrouded in a blue haze with the river and port stretching out on the left and the old town scattered with parks on the right. We walk up St Andrews Lane, a famous and rugged cobble flecked road that’s famous for it’s street market and ancient houses. It’s dilapidated but charming and there are small stalls selling anything from tourist trinkets to nazi and Stalinist memorabilia. Doug got woolly slippers and I got woolly socks with dancing peasants on. People were cool and I got the all important fridge magnet for Nas too.

Striking how different the city is to the countryside, we’d just spent 6 days in, Kiev is a chaotic and thriving metropolis, no chicken chasing to be seen, but lots of dodgy jeans and severe haircuts. Generally people seem smiley and there’s a bizarre mix of skodas, including most of the police cars, and thousands of shiny new Mercedes, all sporting tinted windows and sunglass wearing drivers. Funnily enough I didn’t see a single one stopped by the ubiquitous, farm boy looking traffic cops, but they do seem to stop all the other modern cars and the handshake bribe system is in full, blatant effect. We go back to the hotel for a power nap and then feeling hungry head off for some food. The ever-trusty guidebook fails us, uh oh, and both restaurants in the area that sound good have vanished. Things are looking desperate, for the first time we’re squabbling with Doug wanting to go to a swish trendy looking place and me favouring a cheap canteen. It does look a bit grim though and fortunately we find a traditional Russian restaurant, smart but not too pricey and the food is simple and delicious. Pancakes with salmon and dill smothered in sour cream followed by broth with meat and dumpling herbs ummmm! Feeling satisfied we head off for a big nightclub a girl at the hotel reception had recommended.

We get there and it’s a crazy scene, hundreds of young Kievians all dolled up and nearly all wearing cheap leather jackets and sporting harsh 1990s style German hair cuts. They’re all waiting to get into the club but first have to face the dreaded ‘Face Patrol’. This is the interesting concept that if you’re ugly, not wearing the right clothes or committing the deadly sin of looking too happy you wont get in. The decision is final! Wierdly the Face Control envoy here is really fat and has thinning purple hair and shock of all shocks he declines to let us in leaving two cool cats from London feeling pretty embarrassed. We learn from a jaded US expat in the bar downstairs that we’d committed some terrible sins, we smiled too much and our shoes were distinctly lacking in shine. Uh oh! His words of advice, ‘if you want to get in you better look like someone’s just killed your puppy’. It’s time to find pastures new and we attempt to pay the bar tender but he just ignores our efforts. The club doesn’t trust them with money so if they want to get change it’s a trek to the cashier and back. That would explain their reluctance. At this point we don’t have any idea where to go so perhaps foolishly we follow the US guys advice and head to the River Palace. He says we wont believe our eyes, hmm. I later realise that he’s been here for three years and after gorging himself on prostitutes and strip clubs he’s basically stuck in a bit of a rut.

Anyway we rock up at the River Palace, two unsuspecting English chaps. It’s a neon covered old boat, with three floors. A friendly guide explains that we have to lock up our cameras. The basement is a bar, then there’s a nightclub on the ground floor and finally at the top a casino. We head downstairs and this guy in a bright yellow suit who looks like a washed up children’s tv presenter is doing a totally undecipherable stand up routine. It’s pretty enjoyable with everyone clapping at the end of each long-winded monologue. The clientele is seriously random but it’s only when we venture to the nightclub that it becomes blatantly obvious we’re basically on a floating brothel. While getting a beer Doug’s approached by a girl who says she’s from Nicaragua but blatantly isn’t. I overhear her saying ‘you can sleep with me tonight if you want’. He replies, ‘er sorry but no I have a girlfriend I love.’ She asks what he does and he rather amusingly asks what she does. Cue some awkward silence. Feeling sheepish we get beers and prime seats at the edge of the abyss, alongside the dance floor to watch the action unfold. It feels like Sodom and Gomorra incarnate to two polite chaps like ourselves but it’s riveting in a dark way. Most of the girls are stunning but the blank expressions, whiff of money and ridiculousness of the whole floating experience is depressing. Watching the action there’s a set pattern followed for every transaction, the punter has to pretend to chat up the girl, buying drinks and coming up with amusing banter. Then money comes up and the couple leave. We drink more and more beers and I’m finding the guys more interesting, it’s quite a mix. The Ukrainians know the moves and look relaxed, having a good time dancing with the girls. The expats look a bit lost, keeping to the borders of the space and looking around furtively. As soon as they’ve done the deal, they scuttle off. What really gets me is the way the women’s expressions change so quickly from flirty smiles when looking at the guy to cold, hard stares when they’re not looking back. There’s one porky & bespectacled suit who looks jolly happy dancing to the euro pop and is pushing his pot belly into his catch. He repeatedly tries to kiss her but keeps getting nose as she twists away with a grimace. Ironically today is ‘International Women’s Day’. We’ve had a lot of beer, kind of a theme for this holiday, and the night is getting tiresome. I’m feeling agitated it’s all getting a bit grim.

The Taxi home is a relief. It’s the 2nd night of complete drunkenness in a row and after 5 hours sleep we stumble down to breakfast. It’s not as fancy as yesterdays but is free. Each floor on the hotel looks almost exactly the same, so I take a series of pictures from exactly the same spot by the lifts. Sweating and hung over it’s nerve wracking, you have to use your card to operate the lift and it keeps not registering so I’m turning up on random floors. Each one with video cameras and some suspicious security staff. I’m wondering if they’re wondering what I’m up to and about to go ballistic. Job done and we’re in a taxi raching through the city’s soviet style suburbs interspersed with bleak forests. It’s the end of an interesting and physical 7 days in Ukraine. A beautiful, very divided country with such a wealth of tradition and potential for pictures and stories it’s hard to believe the guidebook is so slim! People shout when they’re not angry, then laugh the next minute. We’re told by the border guards there’s no snow in Ukraine then spend 5 days in the one corner that has a ridiculous amount of the stuff. Without fail, everyone laughs incredulously when we say we’ve come to go snowboarding. But we found powder a plenty.

8th March 08