a.funnytimeofyear.com

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Kinky wedding

Right. Off to London again for the weekend. Shooting May & Dave’s kinky fetish wedding. Will be a strange day. Semi-normal ceremony in the morning, followed by attendance of London Pride, then dirty debauched wedding reception in the evening! Staying in the niiiiiiiiiiiiicest hotel. Shame I won’t have much time to shoot in there. D’oh.

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Self (scars)

I notice every summer that my scars really seem to pop when the sun comes out. They change colour, raise up a lot, and really stand to attention. Previously I have not really noticed any attention, as until last summer my scars were mostly on my legs and ankles. This year, I have thick (what I call my tiger stripes) slices on my upper left arm, and a pi symbol etched into my skin on my left arm. Wow, people really do stare! I understand that not everyone “gets it”, but people don’t even bother being subtle any more. At Glastonbury I had one man shouting “what the fuck have you done!” at me, and pretty much every day I’ve been out in the sun with a shirt/t-shirt on, I seem to garner some kind of attention, mostly people poking their friends and pointing. I guess it’d be easier to understand if I actually disliked the scars myself, but I really like them! They’re my pets. Some people like tattoos, they become a part of them. I like my scars. They’re organic. I created them, I healed, and they are there to remind me of things that happened and how I dealt with it. I am becoming more and more interested in documenting the scars.. as well as others. Perhaps a project in the pipeline. I like this one, too (which is old):

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Self (hair)

My hair is so super long and curly. It’s like a big 80s red mohawk!

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Britney Spears

Totally forgot that I ended up accidentally going to see Britney Spears a few weeks ago. I was in London for a wedding consult and a friend had too many extra tickets. Ended up winging my way to the O2 for the evening.. Not really my thing as I’m not a particularly big Britney fan (in fact, the only song I was excited about was Slave 4 U as it’s the closest to a filthy song – just my style – that I think she’s done). Ciara was supporting (more my thing) and I was surprised that I actually really enjoyed the performance. Granted, she only song one song live, but it was quite theatrical and cheeky and a little dirty and of course the company of A, Rooks and Miss O made it all worth while! Particularly liked the visuals playing whilst Marilyn Manson’s cover of Sweet Dreams played. Here’s some photos I snapped..

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Glastonbury

Phew! What a whirlwind week it’s been. Scooted off to London last Wednesday with my Mama, met up with Eva and Occy before heading off to the Roundhouse to see Tracy Chapman. Occy had bought me a ticket for my birthday and I bought a ticket for my Mama for Mother’s Day. It was a pretty special evening for my Mama and I as Tracy Chapman’s music was something we had bonded over throughout my childhood. It was always playing in our house, and as I grew up I listened more and more to her music and it had a profound effect on me. It helped me get through some really tough times when I was a kid, and I took that music with me as I grew up, and it helped me through hard times as an adult. It was an odd feeling as some of the music I had become accustomed to associating with hard times, I now began to reinvent with hope and happiness. The words no longer dragged me down, but filled me with inspiration and dreams and made me aware of just how much things have improved in the last year. Another odd incident is that I bumped into my ex-boyfriend (Hilton) at the gig. He was literally standing right behind me, which was quite strange. We had not spoken for a whole year and of course it was a little awkward because things ended so terribly, but we were civil, said our hellos etc. and then enjoyed the rest of the music. A year has passed and so much has changed.

After getting back to Brighton we literally hopped straight in the car and had the long drive to Glastonbury. After an hour in the car A realised he’d forgotten his ticket so that added a lovely two hours to our journey, but we arrived around 7:30am, extremely tired, and almost died from dragging so much stuff from the car. It is safe to say that we majorly over-packed this year! Thursday was nice, just wandering around and taking it all in again and enjoying being with the gang. My Mama found this photo on the Sky News website of us wearing our romper suits (I’m the jigsaw):

Started Friday afternoon off with Regina Spektor (lovely), Stephanie McKay (been waiting to see her for years!) and N.E.R.D (disappointing, bad sound). One of my highlights was seeing Lamb after so many years. I have been to quite a few Lamb gigs, as well as seeing Lou Rhodes solo and it brought back a lot of memories. I was by myself as the guys went to see The Puppini Sisters, but I had a good boogie with the rest of the crowd! Then scooted off to catch the end of Little Boots, but was mostly distracted by the insane men throwing each other around in the mud, which provided a lot of entertainment.

Then went and saw Lady Gaga, who was ok. I think her set was quite.. well.. it’d be better if it was in a stadium or something, very theatrical, maybe a bit too much for a festival. She looked like a total tranny, which made my day! Then went to watch The Fire Tusk Pain Proof Circus, which I’d seen before at the Roundhouse with Evs. It was great! Caught a bit of The Space Cowboy as well, who is incredibly delicious to look at. Nomnom. After that we got a bit mashed at Shangri-La, mainly being distracted by anything shiny. Bumped into Pete and Gemma (and some others) where it all went a bit bonkers, as you may be able to tell from the photos:

Alick and I decided to stay out all night and found ourselves at The Tiny Tea Tent at 7am-ish, having far too many cups of tea & coffee. Stayed until about midday in the sun, then spent a few dead hours in the sweltering tent before dragging ourselves out for Dizzee Rascal. I would have enjoyed it much more if I hadn’t had totally annihilated my poor body with sleep deprivated the night before, but Dizzee was amazing! Really loved it. After a little siesta Alick and I went off to see Florence & The Machine which, again, was one of my highlights. If you can still see if on the Radio 1 website, watch her set. Such an amazing amazing amazing performance and I can’t wait to see her again in September. Bopped a bit to Pendulum (was strange watching families dancing like crazy), attempted to see 2 Many DJs but it was so over-packed that after I’d been elbowed a few times and had drink thrown over me, decided to abort. Kt & Rogi were working at Bliss so we went along to that, took some photos of Rogi stilt walking and Kt angle grinding, before heading off at a reasonable hour (3:30am) to get some sleep.

Sunday was pretty lovely, even though I spent most of it on my own. Being the pensive gay that I am I wanted to see a lot of lovely folkish stuff, so we all split up and went different ways. Went to see Imelda May (damn good rockabilly music), Beth Rowley, Alela Diane, Bat For Lashes, Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling. We were all pretty pumped up to see The Prodigy as we envisioned it as a huge rave scene but much like N.E.R.D the sound was terrible and it wasn’t just us, but flocks of people that decided to leave and find something else to watch. Ended up seeing Peaches who I haven’t seen for years and she was just as great as ever. So so so good! I think her new album is so much better live than the album actually is. Ambled through Shangri-La again watching so many people mashed off their face before we got caught by a torrential downpour and retired to our tent.

It was loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooovely. Quite a bit more subdued then last year as I wasn’t drink too much because of my kidneys, but I had such a bloody good time! So many hilarious memories to come away with again.

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Self

Today was one of those days that really tests your faith in humanity. I do not enjoy those days.

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Back from Glastonbury

Just got back from Glastonbury a few hours ago. Such a good time, but my body is aching now! Will post some more photos tomorrow with a better update.. time to veg out now.

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Jimmy

Long day organising stuff for Glastonbury. Took these today of Jimmy. He’s super cute.

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Romper suits

Spent the day with the gang making our romper suits for Glastonbury :)

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Busy busy busy

Busy busy busy busy weekend. Shot a wedding yesterday, off to Suffolk shortly to the spa for Miss Octavia’s epic 25^th motown birthday bash (complete with special outfit). Tomorrow we’re working for a Living TV programme (!), then got a stag do. I’ve never been to a stag do. Should be interesting, seeing as the groom is straight but we’re going gay clubbing (indication of how strange the groom is). Sunday is hair dying and romper suit making day (for Glastonbury). Glastoooooo! Can’t wait! Having cute romper suits made for all-in-one evening wear (rolling around in the mud, etc). Tracy Chapman next week too!

Busy busy busy.

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Self

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Self

Self-portrait, June 2004.

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Johnny Hazzard

It’s been quiet around these parts…

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Love Rain

It has been so incredibly sunny the past two days, and this song is playing over and over in my mind. Yummmm.

My favourite part is in Mos Def’s rap. Now if someone could rap these lines at me, I’d melt, big time.

For you, I would peel open the clouds like new fruit
And give you lightning and thunder as a dowry.
I would make the sky shed all of its stars like rain
I would clasp the constellations around your waist
And I would make the heavens your cape
And they would be pleased to cover you
They would be pleased to cover you
May I please, cover you, please.

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Self (mountains)

Right now I wish I was back there in Jaén, atop of a moutain, still looking down at everything with pure fascination. One day we just drove for hours, curling around the mountain-top roads. I sat in the back, windows down, 37°C, scanning everything below us. The landscape changed from olive groves to desolate mountains, to lush greenery with reservoirs snaking through the valleys below. We stopped at a derelict hotel with a river beside it – I walked down the river, the current pushing me along. Sat on a rock and heard nothing but the rush of the river on either side of me, the noise of reality entirely blocked out.