I had forgotten about these photos taken on a lovely (and cold) day out in Surrey with the gang. They do make me smile, very much so.
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From the category archives:
Out & about
Photos from the Andrew Majtenyi Autumn/Winter 2010 show for London Fashion Week. Check out Tom’s article on Spoonfed which accompanies these photos..
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Photos from the Prophetik Autumn/Winter 2010 show for London Fashion Week. Check out Tom’s article on Spoonfed which accompanies these photos..
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Phew! What a week. Today has been the first time I’ve had the chance to sit down at the computer, catch up on e-mails, do a bit of retouching and defrag the contents of my brain from the previous week.
I had such a lovely time away for my birthday. It was just so wonderful being with lots of my friends out in the country, disconnected from the world (checked Facebook/email a few times, phone died when we arrived and I didn’t bother to charge it). The house was an incredibly beautiful barn conversion with a huge family-style kitchen, lots of comfy bedrooms (despite the snorers) and surrounded by sheep (I love sheep). C & I shared the gorgeous master bedroom and when I couldn’t sleep I enjoyed watching the sunrise from our window as he slept peacefully, snuggled into the thick, warm duvet.
We didn’t leave the house much to be honest. On Saturday we went to Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall which was incredibly. I am utterly obsessed with the sound of running water and having not seen a real waterfall before I thought I might die with excitement when we arrived. It was breath taking standing at the bottom and looking up and then later on in the day we climbed the mountain right to the top. This part of the adventure was not so good as I slipped over backwards on a rock at the top of the waterfall and broke my camera lens. BUT, it shall not mar my experience… I’ll post some photos of the waterfall a bit later.
Ate so much food it became a little ridiculous. And really good food. Lots of egg breakfasts, lamb tagine, home-made leek and potato soup (a la Mama), huge huge huge roast dinner, with the last evening rounded off with a curry. Absolutely de-lish.
On the way home we headed by Lake Vyrnwy which was also pretty incredible (and cold). Such a huge expanse of water with a rather odd little castle-like turret sticking out into the water. Reminded me of when E & I drove around ‘El parque natural sierras de Cazorla‘ last summer. Paradise? Will post photos of there at a later date too…
Here’s a rather random assortment of photos from the weekend! Image heavy…
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After interviewing MEN (see previous post) we stayed for their set. I kept thinking back to when I photographed Le Tigre in 2004.. Amazing set, great energy, lovely people. Here’s some live shots. I also took some videos but I’m not a video whiz just yet!
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The gang and I had a lovely day wandering around some galleries and museums last week. The Stuart Haygarth exhibition at The Haunch of Venison (mentioned in the previous post) is really beautiful. I wish there were more of it, but given that it’s taken him years to collect what is on display, it’s pretty impressive. I kept standing there, looking up at these creations and feeling slightly dizzy and dazzled. Incredibly beautiful.
We also wandered around the Science Museum which, as I haven’t been there since I was a kid, is pretty much the same. Some interesting medical/surgeon kits (scalpels and sharp things, yum yum). I was also pretty obsessed with the idea of going to The Natural History Museum as in my mind I had a memory of seeing a T-Rex skeleton. I was whining like a kid all day about it and when we got there, heart beating fast, it wasn’t a T-Rex at all! It was a diplodocus. Much disappointment ensued. Who cares about a diplodocus? I WANT T-REX. Still, it was a really lovely day wandering around with the yummy boy and good friends, followed by good food. Happy times all round.
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Fronted by two thirds of Le Tigre, Brooklyn-based performance collective MEN aren’t like your usual indie/art band. The project of JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, they focus on the radical potential of dance and make booty-shaking tunes that speak of issues as diverse as wartime economies, sexual compromise, and demanding liberties.
I caught up with JD and bandmates Ginger and Michael in Brighton to hear more about their musical endeavours, their love for Dizzee Rascal and the pitfalls of political dance.
Can you explain how MEN came about after Le Tigre’s hiatus in 2006?
JD: Le Tigre finished and we each individually had our own projects. Johanna and I had been DJing a lot and we decided to turn our duo into a collective, bringing in Michael and Ginger. We’ve completed around seven or eight songs and we have a couple more to record, then hopefully we’ll have our record finished in about a month.
Le Tigre’s music was notoriously politically charged. How is it different writing as MEN and what issues are the new songs covering?
JD: We’re artists and activists and that’s who we are as people. All of us are separate from the band and all of us are queer – that’s a big part of our lives. We spend a lot of time paying attention to our politics so I think our music naturally ends up being politically charged. It’s less something that we feel forced to do, it’s just natural to us.
Do you think that as long as you’re making music and art that the subject matter is always going to be about your political stances?
JD: I think working with Kathleen and Jo [Le Tigre] has taught me about writing in this way. Most people’s songs are about love but I was schooled in this way that music is about life, not just about love, so it can be about anything.
Ginger: I don’t think it’s that the topics are that pre-determined. It’s not like we set out to write an album that’s a queer activist project – it’s just the way we live our lives, the way we think, the people around us, the things that we’re doing.
The production and sound of the new tracks is a lot slicker than the recognisably lo-fi sounds of Le Tigre. Was that a conscious decision?
JD: It’s come from all different things. One thing is that I’ve learnt a lot. Being with Le Tigre until ‘This Island’, we all became better musicians. DJing helped me to analyse music. Working with Ginger and Michael, both instrumentalists, has helped to understand the music better. Le Tigre was such an experiment – pushing buttons and making some amazing things happen but it really was so experimental.
Who are you listening to these days?
JD: We’re really into Dizzee Rascal’s new album. The production is incredible!
Do you not find the song ‘Freaky Freaky’ [in which Dizzee reels off a list of girls’ names and various sexual encounters with them in detail] degrading and offensive to women?
JD: It’s a bit like that other song..
Michael: [Sings] A little bit of Monica..!
JD: Yeah! The Mambo Number 5! In the states Dizzee is really underground. His music is innovative; it refers to so many different periods of music.
Ginger: I feel like you could listen to this and be offended from a really essentialist feminist standpoint.
You’ve recently been working with Christina Aguilera on her new album. What other female artists would you like to work with?
JD: I have so much respect for the artists that are at that popstar level. The amount of work that they put in is pretty crazy. I really respect Lady Gaga – she’s an incredible performance artist which is cool. I don’t know? Joan Armatrading?
What would your ultimate milestone be as MEN?
Ginger: If we could open for Joan Armatrading! [Cheers] Or record a song with her.
Michael: I think something interesting that’s happening is that not all of our audience is queer. I think it’s interesting because we’re obviously totally gay, yet we have really straight dudes feeling this. It’s nice to appeal to not just a queer audience.
Ginger: Another grand vision is to do a major touring act, like a festival model with a bunch of queer bands that would tour and there would be this following of people that would come and travel with us until we ended up with this ridiculously huge queer festival somewhere!
Their EP, ‘Physical’, featuring 3 of their finished tracks is available online via their MySpace.
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