5 Years of Party&Bullshit in Photographs

So after 2 weeks of touching base, enjoying the sun and getting sorted at the other homefront, I'm back in London. I'm one week away from starting my 2nd year at uni and regardless of how much fun I've had, I can't wait. One of the necessary things that needed to be done was to organize the contents of my laptop, discs and hard drives. I found out that I have more than 10.000 images on one of my harddrives alone! I got a request to gather all the pictures that I took and that were taken of my Dutch friends over the past years; a hommage style artwork is in order. So I set up a Flickr account, 400 images so far and counting. Looking over the series, a very predictible pattern of hanging, partying and bullshitting occures and I know, how many photographs can one take of a bunch of slackers getting smashed before it gets boring and repetitive, right? It's not at all the case, they're memory generating images of awesome people having fabulous times and as I can see ourselved growing progressively older, slower, fatter and wiser an eyewatering feel of nostalgia creeps up on me. So for those who haven't been around (for long) I've posted some previews of what's taken place in my world the past 5 years. I want to thank all of those in the Netherlands, the UK and New Zealand for contributing but above all praise to those who would allow me to steal their souls! Bedankt mensen, me love you longtime. -x-

Unfortunately summer's almost over but good vibes are all around still. Here's to old and new friends, family, weird strangers, good times, inspiration, hooking my moms up with her first iPod loaded with 55 years worth of music, getting things done, charging batteries and having my pills popped. 1love

And we're back haha.

My 1st internship.

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UK - NL Hip Hop

Here's a bit of nostalgia for you. As I'm preparing to go back to the Netherlands for a holiday, I thought I'd show you this video that I found a while back. A couple of years ago, one of my favourite Dutch beatbuilders Kubus and in-your-face UK rapper/spoken word poet Bangbang started a collab and produced an album called Pie & Mash. Their track 'Camera' features one of my alltime favourite Dutch rappers Sticks (ex Opgezwolle member, current Fakkelbrigadier) who I've had a major -lyrical- crush on since 2001 - Spuugdingen Op Die Mic'. It's about stigmatization and the role of the media in several conflicts. This video was shot in the Netherlands and these visuals brings back mad memories of my old neighborhood West1 in DenBosch (NL) where I lived with my moms from 1988 untill 2001.

Banksey revisits us

A while back I was taken to the opening of Banksey's show at the Flower Cellars Gallery (which is by the way a gorgeous space) in Russel street. Rare and original Banksy works including plenty of architectural pieces from the last 8 years were on display. This time the catalogue was on sale... £££££

A is for Awards

"The A is a new physical award, created by creative agency YCN to be periodically presented to emerging creative talent. Through consultation with industry figures internationally; practitioners from specific disciplines will be identified - and surprised with a physical A created in a pertinent material or process."

We got given some invitations very last minute to this free booze art show which made for a pretty amusing night at Village Underground in Shoreditch. Thanks a lot and congratulations! Check YCN for more information.

I made a thing.

My first internship is coming to an end and this is the result of 2 months of 9-10 hour work days, millions of emails, phonecalls, pushing limits, breaking boundaries, cutting and pasting, pictorial decision making and learning shitloads of photoshop and indesign tricks. It's said to be the freshest and bestest edition of Edge magazine so far. Now I know what you're thinking, it isn't exactly Vogue, but try to keep in mind that previous issues were crammed into dull, manque templates and that not so inspirational photography of middleaged women in flower patterned patato sacks set the tone for the whole zine. But the creative director said; "Unexperienced Naive Intern, Let There Be a Promotional Fashion Supplement That Hath The Feel Of A Magazine." And so with the idea in my head that this is a magazine for the contemporary Jewish woman reader and that Jewish women too deserve more than patatos sacks, with a fresh pair of eyes I put my Conde Nast hat on and tried my best to spice this biatch up and the CD scratched his head and saw that it was surprisingly good. What more kudos can this humble design student ask for?
Also I recently found out that my boss, the creative director, used to work at the Village Voice in New York in the 70's and that he designed adds for iconic NYC club CBGB together with CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal and that through Kristal he supported acts like the Ramones and Blondie with his own band. He's still good friends with Kristal's daughter Lisa, who's now married to Dutch photographer Ger Burgman. Rock&Roll mang.

Notting Hill Carnival 2009

Since 1966, every August Bank holiday, west London streets turn from your average posh neighbourhood into an overwhelming colorful sea of dancing, laughing, shouting, pulling and celebrating people. With a 20 mile route, 40 earrupturing soundsystems, hundreds of carribean food stalls, 40,000 volunteers and over 1 million visitors this is the largest street festival you'll come across in Europe. Last year I arrived in London 1 day too late so I had my Notting Hill Carnival cherry popped today. Normally, just the word carnival alone makes me puke but this was beautiful, I don't know how else to describe it. The energy was extroardinary. There were masses of healthy looking people, having a dance, a laugh, a smoke. It's amazing to see so many people simultaniously letting go, no shame, no fear. And the weather was fabulous! And the food, ahhh.... I'm knackered, I lost my voice, my feet and leg joints are busted, I ate/drank more than I probably should (*EDIT* I also broke a tooth and when the bus broke down in the middle of the road on my way back home, I accidentally stabbed a guy in the head with one of my nails :s) but it was very much worth it, can't wait untill next year and you should come too! x