Last post was crossposted from/to Dreamwidth/Livejournal. Can't promise to keep it up here like I did do on DeadJournal (ie. not at all LOL) but still importing comments and all that is pretty impressive. Bit crashy crashy on FF2, though.

Note the name change to 'fingertrouble' - something I own as a domain unless it's expired, and want to move away from timbearcub. Not really a cub...not really a bear...I am a Tim LOL but I'd like something more me now.

*insert usual disclaimer about not leaving LJ, I love you all, want your babies etc.*

Apparently the best way is to put baby pictures into it, increases the likelihood of it returning back.

Maybe I should do that, I would've got mine that was stolen last week back.

Err, actually that might send out the wrong signals...family pictures of Jackson & Glitter it is then :-P

After some strangeness and Paypal eCheque drama I finally have my medium format camera, a Bronica SQ-AI, with 80MM lens, Waist Level finder, AE Prism finder, Polaroid and 120 back and flight case.

The seller also threw in 2 Vivitar flashguns, another 120 back, leather box and bodycaps and manuals! :-D



Really this camera is a another level and another age, mostly metal, electronic Seiko shutter but can work manually, built like a brick shithouse and almost weighs as much, in incredible condition, and all modular - as most medium format cameras are, unlike your SLRs or compacts the lens, body, camera finder and film back are all modular and interchangeable, you can change films (formats as well as types - whatever will connect to it really) midroll for another back with this very old piece of technology - the darkslide (circa late 1800s).



Decided to call it Frederick, Fred for short after my grandfather. Dunno why that idea popped into my head but Fred is a good name, and it's as old and archaic as I suspect my grandfather was (never met him) but I'm sentimental like that. Hope it brings good luck.

So onward and upward with my photography...this is not an idle purchase, this is the first tool on the step to being more serious about my photography. Next one will be an upgrade of my digital camera, not yet but waiting for the Nikon 300s to be released....August looks likely although Nikon denies it exists - rumoured to include HD video, which would be very useful for me. Also clients tend to want digital shots - the MF is more for building my portfolio and for those who would want the more pro shots - sadly talking to other photographers apparently very few people want to pay the extra. Very odd.

Unless handed to me on a plate by greatbearmd .

The rules:

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!", and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your journal, and explain what they mean to you.

Mashups

When I originally got involved with the British-born scene in 2002 they were known as Bastard Pop, then bootlegs. Mashups is a recent name invention, coming from the fact that Bastard Pop was too rude and bootlegs used elsewhere - so of course as soon as mashups was coined from old reggae terminology, loads of sad geeks jumped in and nicked it for their shitty little coding examples to sound cool, which still annoys me to this day - get yer own frigging word - we did! Anyway first mashup I heard was Warm Bitch by Richard X, then known as Girls on Top in Sister Ray in Soho, best record shop EVER til they moved - in 2001, and then ran home and looked them up on Audiogalaxy.

I probably don't have the love for them I once had, that dissapated on the 10000th Justin Timberlake or Eminem mashup and the fact that very few places are really pushing it forward, to borrow the Streets phrase. Yup they are getting big in the US and continent, but it's still mostly rock vs rap or electro vs rnb* - or retro-nostalgia-Stars on 45 fest of Girl Talk. Not really radical, nor new. Also the tongue-in-cheek humour has mostly gone, Bastard pop was post-modern and silly comments on pop culture, as sarcastic as much as radio-friendly. Now everyone wants to be a (mashup) DJ for career purposes and create pop 'tunes'. Boring.


* yes I know I am guilty of this!

Photography

My first love, and will be my last. Oh no that's music, although photography is close 2nd with me taking pictures since 8 years old on a crappy and defective GALT plastic 120 camera. Thankfully I quickly got a better one via a jumble sale (Instamatic 126!) for like 20p and never looked back. I've lost count of how many photos I've taken - I know I have in the region of 10-12,000 film photos, but digital explosion means I have nearly 10,000 on my Flickr alone since 2005, and those are just the 'highlights'. Scary thoughts! I want to make it my career though, for years avoiding doing that for fear of destroying something I love, but my main profession is so boring and inane a change of career is needed - I need to LOVE what I do again and be creative.

Music

Definitely my first love as a toddler bouncing to the Beatles and Brotherhood of Man (! last time I liked Eurovision) music is always present, via iPod or mashups or mixes or my podcast, it's part of my environment but never ignored, never background. I wish I had early musical training, unlike other places music lessons cost mega£££s we don't have bands etc so I knew my parents couldn't afford piano lessons at age 7/8 so never asked. I used to play my dad's guitar though later on. That lack of training I miss when I do the mashups and mixes, I've learnt to hear key clash but sometimes I can't work out how to fix it, or if I should even try. Most of my musical training is from messing around.

London

My home for the last 10 years, plan was to move here then move abroad but got kind of stuck. Certainly I'm a city boy and not a country person, urban is where it's at. Can't say I'm proud of London but I'm not unproud either ;-)

DJing

I DJ'd in anger from 2002 onwards - first gig a friend's engagement party, first set was of course 100% mashups. I've gotten a lot better and can mix now via laptop but I was never a beatmatch wikki wikki sort of DJ. I decided to retire after a bad gig and realising the last really good gig was in 2006...

 

BTW I'm this close >.< to getting my own Bronica SQ, already got one of the lenses, just waiting on a few auctions, if that doesn't pan out I've got a few other places to get it from. Nice thing is it's a totally modular system. Which is also the infuriating thing, cos you can get so many variations that getting a kit with back, body and lens and viewfinder/prism is unlikely to fit what I want. And the technology is literally 20-30+ years old...

It's amazing that first roll of film you take when you're happy with every shot on it...came surprisingly quick with the Bronica, although 8-12 frames per 120 film mean that it's easier than say 36 exposure 35mm.

But still, I have my favourites but I'm happy with every shot on this film - although 2 films failed due to me misloading them or the dark slide interlock not working so thus not exposing the film, so all these shots come from one film.

Paul Giamatti. *longing sigh*

http://www.beardrevue.com/2009/07/paul-giamatti.html

Probably the last one for tonight....I'm hungry!

I love this shot and Steve's expression despite it coming out way too underexposed - thank science for Shadows/Highlight.

I was lighting from behind in a high-key effect, so hence it flared and underexposed...hard lighting to meter for, especially for film!

That's not a bird, that's not a plane, it's a thrown bottle! They were throwing the plastic bottles like crazy!

The weekend started with the Blur concert as I mentioned before, so won't go into too much here apart from it was wonderful - I went with Kirk and we were worried about rain and came prepared but as you can see from the pics it was glorious sunshine...the moon even came out for 'This is a Low' and Damon asked everyone to say hello to the moon...all the way through he was throwing out bizarre factoids like this was where Crystal Palace was in 1851 and how beautiful it must of looked - cue loads of blank faces and Wayne-style 'I did not know that Damon!' type reponse ;-) Nice to hear Parklife in the very park that actually inspired it (fact fans!).


Me and Kirk



After a very emotional Universal and Popscene and the whole crowd moshing to Song2, we headed off to the Quebec -where I bought some drinks and literally 5 seconds later in the crowded bar (half Blur fans singing along to Parklife, the other half elderly gay men and a few young entrepeneurs looking on bemusedly) lost my wallet. Cue phoning to cancel my cards in a panic and really didn't end the night well...lost about £35 + 20 euros and loads of stuff in my wallet, mostly unimportant...


Kirk at the end of the night

Went back to Johns and slept late, went into London about 5ish, wandered past Trafalgar Square where the PA sounded broken and some C-list no-name pop wannabe band were gyrating on stage. Wandered past pretty quickly and got in contact with my friend Lee 10000 Spoons and Ian Fondue who were having drinks at the Phoenix Arts Club. Had a great - and strangely quiet - time in there while the madness continued outside. I have to say the whole wallet thing had left a pall on Pride - I wasn't looking forward to it anyway, I always meet people I'd rather not see again...but fucked me off that I go to a gay bar night before pride after being on my guard with all the people at the Blur gig and I get ripped off by a fellow homosexual (pretty sure it was as the Blur fans weren't in the lower bar). So I felt like I wasn't missing much,



Then me and Lee went onto Jez Celebrity Murder Party's place in the wonderful but surprisingly-not-as-shitty-as-I-thought environs of Peckham Rye, met up with some of his friends and had some food and wine that I'd brought as a present for Lee, then went onto Crimes Against Pop where Ian was playing...sadly he was delayed so only played a few tunes, but least I was there early for once...also there was Gregg and Kelly (you might remember them from the CMP XI photos?), Robb and someone I'd not seen for 6 years and was happy to see - Alex aka Jet Set Alex so we caught up a bit.


Robb and Lee the birhday boy


Robb doesn't do funny faces...


???

I then had to rush off to get the last train to Gay Shame where Kirk and Gary were...got there OK but just to find out I'd missed a surprise set by St Etienne! Damn...had a great time, the theme was Gay Shame Goes Girly...well I didn't but had a great time dancing. Gay Shame is the Pride event put on by Duckie, and was the last one sadly :-( Another Last this weekend.



Danced for 2-3 hours non-stop and especially loved them playing Mighty Real, Common People, Girls and Boys (more pogoing to Blur!) and ended on KLF's What Time Is Love which I couldn't believe they played and loved it, and of course reprised with He's On The Phone by St Etienne. The nice thing is it went a long way to restore my faith in homsexuality that had been destroyed by the wallet incident, it was the tonic I needed.


Boys that are girls and girls that are boys...

Got back to Kirk and Gary's early Sunday morning and it was light and stayed up talking til 7am and then dropped down to sleep...had a very chilled day today, mostly chatting and eating then came back here...lovely sunshine and again very warm.

 
Baboon! ;-)

More photos from the weekend