Not quite yet...

I know some of you are still waiting for more Indo photos. And yes I really really really want to post them but I just can't seem to find the time nor the peace or will to do simple tasks like these. My jetlag decided to linger about longer than I'd wished for, resulting in wanting to sleep at 8 PM and waking up at 4 AM for almost a week. When I'm awake I'm mostly occupied with trying to work hard on uni stuff, catching up and annoyingly enough, obsessing over lesser important and outright futile shit. Getting back on track has been harder than I expected it to be. And when I do find the time to sit down and get cracking my mind wanders of and I draw or end up listening to Erik Satie's Gymnopedies on repeat while lying on my sofa, staring at my ceiling. I'm still very much enjoying the memories of my journey and have come to the conclusion that I have become a happier person but I guess I'm just being (necessarily but temporarily) lame. So, I've given up on trying to work/play/live at the pace that I used to and have given into doing whatever my personal rythm allows me to do. For now. Please be patient, those photos will appear here at some stage. Here are some random photos of what I have actually been doing since my return. x

My favourite Gymnopedie at the moment:


For a while I've been visually obsessed with everything black&gold, these are some of my purse contents. I also keep a handfull of shelves that I picked up from Saparua beach in my bag, I like their texture and the sound they make when I play with them.

I'm doing a collab magazine design brief for uni. I've been to several bookshops and at Claire De Rouen's, where I've been drooling over the amazing collection of books and (exclusive) fan- and magazines the have in stock, my magmate introduced me to Swedish made Acne Paper. The combination of carefully selected subjects, choice of paper and simple binding makes my pills pop. So does (the paper stock of) Exponere. We also went sample shopping for our own magazine.

A hint of some work I've done for the project so far. (This includes doing a typeface out of homo-erotic imagery that I haven't posted up here yet.)

Some old and new late night doodling.

Remedies.

So. Uni has started again and it's been timeconsuming and brainwrecking in the best way possible. Decision, decisions! I'm exhausted to the bone and like a lot of you I've had to overcome the horrendous autumn flu. These are some of the niceries that helped me get through it:

- Lots of glasses of hot water with slices of lemon, raw ginger and a scandalous fat chunk of set honey. The best immune system boosting and throat soothing elixir imo.

- Ofcourse oranges and punnets galore of whatever was on sale.
- 2 tubes of Bonjela.
- Lovely txts, BBM chats and e-cards.
- Definitely NOT running in skimpy trackshorts. *ahemstupid*

Audio/visual sexyness (click on images for more information)

- A stack of media including: 2 Lovers, Atonement, Brideshead Revisited, Perfume and new Dexter episodes.

- The new autumn&winter 2009 issues of:

The prospect of going to the highly anticipated ADE with friends: (oh come come come along if you can)

Jiggy Dje's:

Lucious feelgood London vibe supporting tunes like these:

Redlight - Feel So Good


Gracious K - Migraine Skank

Yann Arthus-Bertand's amazing Home Project
(watch it on the biggest screen you can find)

Thoughts of white beaches, clear seas, roots and this itinerary :)

-x- love -x-

Visual overflow.

After I woke up last thursday morning with a fossilized brain in a cantankerous mood I puked my guts out and expected to stay in bed with bottles of water and and a pile of magazines for at least 36 hours. Instead another lavish visual weekend was about to commence. First off I saw Coco Before Chanel at the Ritzy, a film I've wanted to see for a while. I thought it was ok, but can't recommend it to anyone who's not really interested enough in Chanel's life and work. It's easy to recognize how her early life has driven her to become the fashion pioneer that has inspired millions of us, and Tatou was a too easy pick for the lead role, being the talented petite fransaize that she is. But the storyline itself has too many little sub-plots going on that lack development and tension building. Also Chanel's affair with Capel is not convincing enough. Shame on you, Anne Fontaine. You have not stirred my emotions which is really not such a difficult task to do. You get one chance to make a portrait La Chanel and you fuck it up. Putain. I'm loving that poster though.

It's good to know people who have friends who know people that can get you backstage at musical events. I was taken to an opera festival in Hammersmith that offered contemporary experimental pieces in progress ranging from individual 5 minute lasting lighthearted intermezzos on location to heavier 1 hour lasting pieces. Amongst the highlights of the festival were 'Ride' by Osmat Schmool. This is a developing part of 'Drive Ride Walk', it's about love and the familiar movements in the lives of a group of young Londoners. 'Wallen', co-created an performed by brother and sister Errolyn and Byron Wallen. This very personal piece that brings together genres like classical and jazz is performed against a backdrop of images that takes the audience on a journey to Belize (their country of origin), London and New York; crucial marking places in the Wallens personal and professional lives. Their unconventional upbringing forced them to re-define and challenge notions of belonging, distance and boundaries, which makes for beautiful music. Another very intense interesting piece in progress that definitely has the potential to evoke obscure emotions was 'As I Have Now Memoyre' by Nicholas Brown. It concerns the relationship between the condition of the body and the sounds it produces. This project examines the effect of physiological changes upon a singer's psychology over the course of many years. It involves installations and the audience is free to roam around amongst the props. Very liberating! I had the freedom to take photographs and stage photography was something I'd never really done before, so forgive the amateurism ;)

And after that there were the substance fuelled semiotic discussions about 'Gayniggers from outer Space'...



and 'Salo, or the 120 days of Sodom'. That film still sends shivers down my spine but I can't get enough of Pasolini.

Speaking of perversity, check out this exciting blog I found. The author of the essay 'Horror Pangyric' (good read) speaks of a book called 'The Motherfuckers: The Auschwitz of Oz'

"This thing," I thought to myself, "out-Burroughs Burroughs." It did something I did not think possible: it carried the Boschian method of Naked Lunch to a new extreme, and it did that with exceedingly controversial subject matter. I almost didn't know what to make of it. Was this book an explosive new entry in the contemporary literary game? Or the feverish rapture of some British mind fucked up by the Blitz?

A novel that out-Burroughs Burroughs eh? That's a mouthfull... x

BBC Proms - Evolution! Goldie

Last saturday Goldie's 'Sine Tempore' (BBC commission: world premiere) was featured in the BBC Maestro series at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The piece combines the same vocals and drums he played at Metalheadz in 1996, only 10 times slower and aided by the London Philharmonic Choir. And having been smitten with both drum&bass and classical music for many a year, my likkle heart went bonkers when I heard it. And this is a fucking awesome photograph.

*Watch Goldie compose his piece in Classic Goldie on BBC iPlayer now (if you're in the UK :) Available untill August 14.*


Photograph © The London Paper