Monday 17 November 2008

Shake&Pop.

The Across The Pond - CSM Design show was advertised as follows: 


'This night Across The Pond is presenting a special art event, showing selected works made by students at Central Saint Martins 2nd year of the design department. We also got Robert Agren (Sweden), Jonatan Strøm, Jens Tandberg, Victoria Violent, Grandma, Bjørnar + a special guest on the decks
-
Tonight is a night for art by talented Central Saint Martins students! You dont want to miss the latest up and coming from londons creative lung accompanied by some wicked tunes. woho party party!' 

Right, uhuh. So yeah it turned out to be a wicked night, unfortunately apart from one person, no-one else bothered to put their work up, which was a bit of a let down, but hey.... "I like electro, I like retro, I like ghetto, house and techno." Here's to all you oddballs out there.

Homework.

Here's some of the stuff I've been working on during the past 2 months.











Food.

Over the past year I've lost a lot of weight, hair and energy, and after having walked around with a 'jerked-off' face for 6 months, as my stephfather so blatantly put it, I'm gaining weight and strength again. A lot of it has to do with being in the right place doing the right things. But most of it has to do with being in he right place and EATING; Dicho's moussaka, Jade&Ikers Spanish ways of eating around the clock, sushi for lunch, 2:00 AM dimsum gettogethers with Jan and Andreas, exotic lazy sunday Brick Lane lunches, organic (I still don't taste the difference) dinner parties, international tea&cake brunches...




A gift.

From a former satisfied Cordings customer. Good karma came back to me in the shape of an Art Nouveau style decorated biscuit box... <3

Sunday 9 November 2008

Another month has passed, what more could I wish for.

Typography classes.
Mr. Porky's.
New friends with intuitive insight.
Late-night illustration sessions with food and laughs.
New cakes.
Rediscovering the (ir)relevance of violence.
Effortless being.
Old friends that know exactly what's what.
The freaking guy with the cello.
Being in London.
Being shocked and gaining from it.
BBC iPlayer.
Meaningful literature.
Sleeping, waking up and falling asleep.
Bulgarian hospitality.
Cheap bus tickets.
Sainsbury's cold chick pee salad.
Photography revisited.
Markets that don't make me vomit.
Walks by the water.
Fireworks.
Useful shit.
The girl with the silver hair.
Hampstead Heat.
New musical knowledge.
Being admired without making an effort.
Pancakes.
Seeing friends fall in love.
A flatmate who picks you up at 2 AM with his taxi.
Being understood.
Dreaming about Saldjoe.
Next level discussions.
Being drawn (for the 1st time) by people with skills.
Feeling worthy.
Free fags.
New inspiration.
Knowing what's best for me.
Letting go.

Monday 20 October 2008

Central Saint Martins II

I'm entering my third week at CSM and thought it's about time to give you a brief (visual) update on where I'm supposed to spend the next 2.5 years of my life at. I'll try to keep it short this time as I could go on forever and ever. Actually, I think I'll just stick with a few photographs for now. There'll be more ranting about studying there and life outside of uni later this month. (I think.)












Aurora Borealis.

For me coming to London is not just about getting that degree and having shitloads of fun but also about determining goals. Here's a little something I wanted to share with you. I've wanted to see the Northern Lights for as long as I can remember and after having watched 'Joanna Lumley finds the Northern Lights' on BBC TV iPlayer (a least 5 times haha - Unfortunately it's no longer online and unavailable to those of you outside the UK anyway) and discussing them thoroughly with my Scandinavian classmates I'm determined to see them before I die, no matter what. The documentary is about Joanna Lumley travelling all the way up to Norway to find them, she read about the lights in an illustrated childrensbook whilst living in the tropics in Indonesia and has wanted to see them ever since. Here's a small snippet of the documentary that captures the moment when she finally get's to see them. Beautiful. The soundtrack is Peer Gynt's 'Solveigs Song'. Enjoy :) 

South London.

Now that I live above the river I thought I'd dedicate a tune to the grime, the smells, the edginess, the rubbish, the cheap shit, the dodginess, the warmth, the protection, the tough love, the families, Hussain the PR HSBC employee, the street preachers, the hacklers, the dealers, the packs, the gangs, the music, the reefer smell and the hidden beauty.

Evol Intent - South London

Friday 17 October 2008

From South to West to East.

Hello and again. It's been a hectic few weeks. First off, I moved out of the Peckham Rye mansion. The owner of the house moved back to the UK after losing her job in New Zealand and becoming gradually more mentally ill. She has now returned and has her 70-something year old mother look after her. I couldn't cope with the thought of having to deal with a manic depressive person as a landlord and with the mortgages going through the roof I decided it was time to move on. And so I found this place in Bethnal Green, 2 minutes from the tube, but this turned out to be a dodgy affair and when push came to shove, the retard landlord cunt decided not to let the room out to me (I think I asked too many questions and after speaking to the flatmates without having him around I found out he's an unreliable bastard, and I think he knew I knew.) So no loss there, if anything I was better off. Anyway, this meant that I had no place to live, as I was supposed to move into that flat the day I moved out of Peckham Rye. Luckily, I was able to spend a couple of nights at my mate's place in Earls Court, and within a few days I found this other place in Bethnal Green, 5 minutes from the tube, 30 minutes from frontdoor to uni. At first sight I got a bit worried as the interior of the place reminded me to much of my very first flat in the Netherlands and the last thing I could use at the time was having to live with annoying disrespectful people. But after a chat with Tristan, the Australian guy who's subletting his room to me, I knew it was going to be alright. I occupy a small double room with a double bed, a desk, cupboard space and it comes with a small storage room where I could keep a small family if I wanted to. I now live with 3 Bulgarian dudes; Dicho, he arrived a month ago and is studying really hard to learn English. He didn't speak a word of English when he arrived. (He's the big bloke with one eyebrow in the blue Adidas shirt.) Basically what he does, is sit in the house, he watches subtitled films, studies, cooks and cleans. He's very polite and thoughtfull and is trying really hard to explain to me what life in Bulgaria is like but when the place get's too crowded and noisy he rushes off to his room. These guys make excellent Bulgarian food. It's impossible to be hungry in this house as Des, a funny loudmouth bike courier (the bloke in the green tshirt) also loves his food and food wise, the general policy of the house is 'If iz on zhe table, iz foh everyone'. Then there's Nas, the oldest in the house, he's a barman who's well into anything eardrum-rupturing; Metal, Gabber, Techno and some other weird shit that involves a lot of crying, hysterical laughter and screaming. (He's the guy in the black Rammstein shirt) I found him quite intimidating in the beginning but he turned out the be a total sweetheart. Then there's a Spanish couple; Jade (obviously the blond chick in the photo) who's an interior designer and her boyfriend. (I keep forgetting his name, he's the gnome resembling guy in the yellow shirt) The last person in the house is Dave, an hyperactive Australian guy (the guy in the white shirt) who's addicted to his Wii and has snorted a few too many lines imo. He's incredibly intelligent and he's happy to fix my PC when it needs fixing but he lives in his own little world and very often doesn't give a fuck (about anything I reckon.) They all seem to be getting on well though, and everyone here seems to have accepted Dave for who he is. The other 2 guys in the photos are Kyro, he's French, used to live here and is into anything that contains breaks and beats and I have no idea who the oriental/french fellow is but they're part of some crew that shows up every week with a lot of illegal substances and booze. They're an energetic bunch, they all smoke, drink, work and love their rowdy times (lots of laughter, screaming, piss-taking and general wastedness) but at the end of the day it's all about respect and sharing. I feel very much at home here but not necessarily part of the household, I think I'm more like a rent-paying guest. I'm here only temporarily (until the end of my first term) and am still looking for the perfect flat on the perfect location. But for now I am content and this place will do.