Re: meeting Wavves

To quote Dulcie, to the dregs and back indeed... I think we met him on a bad week: http://pitchfork.com/news/35459-wavves-self-destruct-in-barcelona/

Never meet your heroes

(This is what happens when you own five cameras and not a single one is working.)

Saw Wavves live at Rough Trade last night. The first thing that struck us was just how little he was. He played a pretty awesome set though, To The Dregs, So Bored and California Goths highlights. He seemed rather pissed off after though, possibly due to his amp catching fire and a rather non-reponsive crowd, and some rather embarassing conversation and picture taking ensued. His drummer was a United fan though.

End of foundation and G-town.

The year has drawn to a close, and the stresses of last week are long forgotten. A few photographs from the weekend.

C'est fini! (Almost..)

I'm now just a 500 word evaluation away from completing my work. Thought I'd post this song as a kind of tribute to my project, which all draws to a close tomorrow.

Wolf songs

Just heard the new Patrick Wolf album for the first time. Have to say when Hard Times (the album's first song proper) started playing I was apprehensive, but as the album rolled out (with a helping hand from Tilda Swinton's narration..) it became clear that he hasn't disappointed - there is plenty of the Patrick Wolf of old despite his promised darker side, and I'm sure the album will grow on me even more with a few more listens. In a weird way it kind of sounded like a cross between pagan folk music and a weird 90s sci-fi film soundtrack. With lots of strings. However, this listening may have been influenced by the cover art. There's certainly lots of variety, with heavy riffs (!) and battle chanting on, er, Battle, and a beautiful choir on The Sun is Often Out. I'm sure it'll be on repeat on my ipod before long.

And so the journey comes to an end..

Today we have been busy preparing and painting the studio, ready to hang our work tomorrow. The pristine white walls now await our wonderful work, and I really can't believe it's all coming to an end. It's kind of crept up on me, and suddenly this project that I've been immersed in for the last three months is two days away from being finished forever. It's a strange feeling.

After college James and I went to the Barbican for 'an evening dedicated to the American suburb', two films based around the theme of suburbia and its artificial nature and utopian vision of life. We managed to catch the first one, Streamside Day Follies, which was beautifully shot (see the picture), however when they began to play Wonderland, the second film, it became clear after watching the first thirty seconds of a grainy London pub scene that the Barbican had in fact been sent the wrong film from America. This was rather amusing, although I would have liked to see the film.. Luckily we were refunded, but the director understandably did not stick around for the scheduled Q&A, clearly rather peeved that his UK premier had been foiled.

Just read about this..

No Age + Paris + Skateboards. I think 'sick' is the word.

No-one knows where our secrets go

The Smashing Pumpkins are a band I've never quite managed to get into, despite numerous half hearted attempts on last.fm and Dulcie's insistance that I will like them. I think, however, it's time for this to change, as I simply can't stop listening to the above song. Also, loving the video montage..

To buy or not to buy? (I can't believe I just wrote that..)

I'm in a bit of a predicament, as I really can't decide whether or not to buy yet another camera. I already have five, as well as a Super-8 (which due to some recent good fortune may soon be in use), but my lust for beautifully crafted photo makers seems to be insatiable. The camera I currently have my eye on is a Canon AE-1, first manufactured in 1976. They do look rather special, particularly the old school Canon logo, and would certainly keep me happy until I can afford that Leica. For the kind of prices they're currently going for on ebay, I think it might just be worth it..

My project is almost coming to an end, it's been a long and 'emotional' journey, which as usual has seen me fret over the quality of my work, hate it all on numerous occasions, and have lots of ideas which I never actually carry out. Nontheless, I have begun to put it all together on the wall in our studio and it is looking better than I expected. At various points over the past few weeks I honestly thought this was going to end up as a disaster, but I've somehow managed to rescue it and produce something I'm (fairly) pleased with. Hopefully anyone who reads this will be able to make it to the show in June!

Anyway, enough writing, I must get back to work, the clock is ticking and my sketchbook is still in need of serious attention.

Some photographs..

I remember going to this shop as a kid and buying things like Nerds and Space Raiders.





So mature.







This is generally how most of us feel in college.

Assignment 10 : Make a flier of your day

www.learningtoloveyoumore.com

No hope kids

I've been sitting at my desk drawing all week, I feel like I'm going a bit mad. Pencil? Pen? Ink? Pencil AND ink?? It's come to the point where I'm deliberating so much over a stupid little matter like this that I can't even think about how it all looks on the wall. Also, it gets to the point where you can only draw so many people on laptops...

Some things that have inspired this project..







(Ed Templeton, Raymond Pettibon, Me and You and Everyone We Know)

Back and forth forever

(I got new glasses)

So, the long weekend is coming to an end and what a lovely one it has been. I spent my bank holiday weekend with my beautiful girl Dulcie, for the most part preparing for her brand new business venture The Sweetest Vintage Clothing Company! Debuting tommorow at University of Manchester's Student Union Market, she will be selling hand picked vintage and second hand clothing and accessories. Look out for lots of colourful scarves and rather exquisite handbags.

We've been getting inspiration from vintage fayres and market stalls, augmenting stock in Angel (and devouring two giant pizzas) and making tags for all the items on sale. We even managed to catch Patrick Wolf giving a select few shoppers at Selfridges an intimate evening performance, bondage wear and all. It's safe to say a fair few people were rather bemused by what they saw amongst the mulberry bags and over priced tea, however it didn't stop one toddler getting his groove on. Today we made the most of our last day together at the Tate, where I came across a most inspirational book by Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July, the writer/director/actor of You And Me And Everyone We Know, an amazing film I saw a few weeks ago about an artist and a recently seperated shoe salesman who strike up an unusual relationship. The book is called 'Learning To Love You More' and is a document of a website set up by the two artists in 2002, which gave out assignments for people to do and then post back on the website. The assignments are really imaginative and the results can be really touching, and I am set on carrying out as many I can myself.

For now though it's back to the drawing board, I have serious issues with my work which I'm going to confront and beat into a pulp and hopefully come up with something as interesting as that website.