snippets and found objects and doodangles and dog portraits

where am I?

2009-12-07T17:05:00.001+11:00

Are you looking for me?

I'm here.

NEW WEBSITE! woooo! Check it out! (it's semi-done... still some more to add)

x
j

still, calm.

2009-12-04T10:57:00.001+11:00

little old italian ladies and their furnished interiors

2009-11-29T21:50:00.002+11:00

film shoot still

2009-11-22T22:04:00.000+11:00

Maximo Park

2009-11-18T17:29:00.002+11:00

@ the metro, fri 13th November
shot for the dwarf

Wolfmother and Jack Ladder @ the enmore theatre

2009-10-30T17:07:00.003+11:00

This is the last of the Groupie/Olympus gigs I shot.

Wolfmother and Jack Ladder @ the enmore, sat 19th Sept. I had never heard Jack Ladder before, and I was very impressed!

Photos taken for Groupie Magazine and Olympus using the new Olympus Pen camera.

kirin j callinan - recently played three nights at the russian coachmen recording his first album live - I could not stop raving about him, he's amazing and hypnotic.

Children Collide

2009-10-27T17:27:00.002+11:00

Children Collide @ the Gaelic Club Sydney - Fri 11th September 2009.
Photo's taken for Groupie Magazine and Olympus using the new Olympus PEN camera.

I really just like to let the back lights bleed out, the faces of musicians are irrelevant so I'd much rather replace them with blobs of light.

Grafton Primary and Cassette Kids @ the metro

2009-10-20T19:35:00.002+11:00

Fri 4th September 2009.
Photos taken for Groupie Magazine and Olympus using the new Olympus PEN camera.

Decoder Ring and Bridezilla

2009-10-18T19:42:00.003+11:00

At the metro theatre, fri 28th August 2009.
Photos taken for Groupie Magazine and Olympus.

I'm not very good at gig photography...

2009-10-09T22:25:00.003+11:00

because I don't really care for those typical rock show shots...

Kirin Callinan is really fun to watch, he's a tad eccentric, like a young bowie (but still not even close...)

I thought this was a really tender moment of boy love in the crowd

The Rest of Tin City

2009-09-25T21:51:00.002+10:00

The rest of the shots that didn't quite make the final cut for my Tin City series.

sound around town

2009-09-11T11:46:00.004+10:00

Here's some shots I took at a recent event at UTS - Refraction. Organised by Emily McDaniel, it brought together current UTS students to perform with established sound artists. There were some lush sounds from the likes of Morning Stalker, Cleptoclectics, The Ethernet Ensemble Orchestra and Genevieve Little. (Check them out on their respective myspaces).
You can also check out a few more pics at my flickr

Morning Stalker

Cleptoclectics

The Ethernet Ensemble Orchestra

Genevieve Little

So this is kind of cool....

2009-09-02T18:07:00.000+10:00

Tin City photo series

2009-08-21T17:49:00.003+10:00

This is the final series for my photography subject at university.

Shot on a Bronica SQA with a 90mm lens and a 24mm lens, and on Fuji Velvia 100 and Kodak E100G.

It was shot in the squatter community of Tin City on Stockton beach near Newcastle. A really wonderful place whose undeniable relationship with a harsh and volatile landscape is explored in the series.

Photos 1 and 3 are my absolute favs. It's the same location as where I shot my final uni film "Porphyria".

Lost holga roll - Cuba

2009-08-03T22:31:00.003+10:00

Lost shots from Cuba - jan 2008.
All holga, all x-pro.

Train tracks at Santa Clara, Cuba, the turning point of the Cuban revolution occurred here.

La Habana

The cute doggy pull flush at a house we stayed in. This was by far my favourite house, it also has the 'infamous cuban curtain wall'

train station at Santa Clara

La Habana vs. La Habana

Che memorial in Santa Clara
(che = god)

Lost Holga rolls of Mexico pt 2

2009-08-02T20:29:00.001+10:00

Mexico city fountain and sculpture

Mexico city architecture

These last three are all from Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls). A man that lived on an island fished all of these out of the surrounding canals and hung them around his island to ward off the spirit of a young girl who had drowned nearby. It's one of the strangest and spookiest places out there, and an absolute thrill to see.

The lost holga roll of Mexico

2009-07-27T22:39:00.002+10:00

Housemates, meat towns, waterslides - everything you want on an overlapping never before seen roll of film.

oscar and his multiple personalities

bff's 4 eva

cara and carrizal (crazy waterslides and hot springs)

las trancas = meat, carrizal = waterslides (and jamaica in a plastic bag)

oscar and gerry

Once upon a time in Mexico

2009-07-26T22:03:00.002+10:00

Thanks to neg scanners at uni I've rediscovered some old photos from Mexico that never saw the light of day.

a very common place to find a dog in Mexico

"with my solitude I will die"

The cathedral where the guerrilla army the zapatistas took control in 1994, and were subsequently slaughtered by the Mexican military backed by the US. Just another sad chapter in Latin America's history.

the last of kara

2009-07-24T13:11:00.001+10:00

some scanned transparencies of a studio portrait shoot with kara
shot on hasselblad
and Fuji slide film

Kara in black and white

2009-07-20T22:00:00.003+10:00

some negs scanned from my studio portrait shoot with the lovely Kara Bombell (or should I say BombSHELL!?)

published

2009-07-08T23:14:00.002+10:00

I've been contributing cd reviews and photos to a music website called The Dwarf, and they've recently branched out into print, and consequently have published one of my cd reviews in their new mag called What is Fine Line.

I got the magazine in the mail, and didn't know why so it was a complete surprise!

Kara is a Supernova

2009-06-30T23:03:00.002+10:00

Kara was kind enough to let me take some photos of her in the studio. We used a black background and kick light which lent itself quite well to adding stars and supernovas and space dust to the images.

These are all digital, should have some hasselblad shots back in a few days!

Holga in the reeds

2009-06-27T22:57:00.001+10:00

alyce

nicholas

just hanging out in some reeds y'know.

Adam v.2.0.5. Hasselblad shots

2009-06-26T22:20:00.002+10:00

Here's some more shots from my studio shoot with Adam, but these are extra special because they're medium format goodness from a yummy hasselblad.

the lost holga roll of melbourne, june 2008

2009-06-20T19:00:00.002+10:00

finding old rolls and getting them developed is a little bit fun.

Ang, Kerr St bedroom no. 2

Kara, Kerr St bedroom no. 1

(the infamous Kerr St screen tests, and two of the most amazing girls you will ever meet)

rhys and daz, the 'cool kids'

and ryan, objecting to me flashing him in the face

Adam, editorial portrait

2009-06-02T21:42:00.004+10:00

"Peace Hitler"
Adam is a filmmaker and screenwriter, he is also Jewish, so therefore we're allowed to make reference to Hitler and not be considered insensitive.

Next brief for my photo class was an editorial portrait shot in the studio, using studio lights.
It was a first time for me, which is a little exciting.

Here's some digital versions of some shots, I mainly shot on medium format film, but I need some more time to scan the negs.
I got to use a Hasselblad for the first time, and it was heaven! (and has renewed my want and desire for one, my wallet isn't so pleased with this)

If anyone has a spare couple of grand lying around please feel free to buy me one!

We experimented a little with projecting images from some of Adam's films.

fashion shoot bitches

2009-05-30T18:31:00.004+10:00

I had to do a fashion shoot for a uni photography class, so I conned two of my besties into it, and this is what we came up with. I reckon they're alright, they subscribe to that new school punk/drunk aesthetic that Terry Richardson and Vice seem to have pioneered.

Writing for music website

2009-05-27T20:13:00.002+10:00

I've written a few cd reviews recently for an Australian music website called The Dwarf.

You can check them out here:

Review of St. Vincent - Actor

Review of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Advance Battery Life

Review of Faust - C'est Com... Com... Compliqué

For those of you who are too lazy I've pasted here my most recent review of St. Vincent.

One summer I tripped out on acid in a big way, and everything had this sun-kissed look and there were lots of lens flares like those shots of Kirsten Dunst in The Virgin Suicides. There were small animals around me, mainly rodents, the cute kind, like little mice and rabbits, and there may have been some baby deer, and they were all singing songs and had little choreographed dance routines. At one point they formed a giant animal pyramid like little hairy cheerleaders and then a fountain sprung up behind them, and it was the fountain of youth. So we all drank some of fountain of youth juice, and we all were transformed into our childhood selves, somewhere around age four. You know, that period when everything is still magical and you actually still have an imagination, its like utter sheer happiness and joy raining down on you in rainbow coloured droplets. You might think this is completely irrelevant, but I'm pretty sure St. Vincent shared this experience with me and used it to inspire her new album Actor. How else would she have known how to make the perfect soundtrack to this experience?

Then I looked out the window, and realised that it's actually really cold in Australia right now; it's rainy and windy and pretty much the exact opposite of a sun-kissed summer acid trip. I figure, the equivalent winter based experience of this album would contain some of the following: a lover, marshmallows, mulled wine, pillow rooms that swallow you up, snuggling whilst watching experimental films but then getting bored and making out instead, dancing around together in your underwear wearing giant elaborate feathered head-dresses.

This album is a collection of lovely pop songs, with St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) maintaining a calm and beautiful tone across the entire album. Mixing up the soft vocals with layers of fuzz and other textural elements, The Neighbours is a perfect example of this, although most other songs are as well, there is A LOT of fuzz on these tracks, either that or my headphones are broken.

Actor out of Work, the title track of the album is a great rambling song, the beat is infectious as are the lyrics, it's the perfect up-beat track to start the morning with (and to jog to; if you jog, I don't jog). Other standout tracks are Laughing with a Mouth full of Blood and Marrow, two of my absolute favourites on this disc. Laughing with a mouth full of blood thrills me with it's haunting echoey vocals, whilst Marrow is by far one of the catchiest songs on this album. "H. E. L. P. Help me, Help me" - it's hard not to imagine St. Vincent madly leading her own psychedelic marching band down the street as they play kazoos and toy pianos. The Party is a relaxed ballad, calming and soothing, elegant and beautiful and this vibe continues through on the last two tracks of the albums. Lullabies rocking you to sleep so you can dream about candy and cake and kittens.

You may think I've just wasted two-thirds of this review talking about nonsensical things that have nothing to do with music, but what you're ignoring is this amazing ability that music has to trigger our imagination and transport us to places faraway from out current reality. St. Vincent's album Actor does that for me, and hopefully it does for you too. I might physically be on a train, with cold wind and rain outside, but more importantly, I am mentally and emotionally exactly where I want to be - dancing around in my underwear with a lover wearing elaborate feathered head-dresses whilst cute furry animals serenade us with their songs.

Porphyria shoot day 2

2009-05-11T21:39:00.002+10:00

Shot at Kurnell, near Cronulla.
Photos by Joel Caban.

'Porphyria' - day 1

2009-05-03T18:16:00.002+10:00

Here's some photos from my film shoot, taken by Joel Caban.

These are from day 1, shot at Stockton beach near Newcastle.

Fancy dress day @ Playground Weekender

2009-04-21T11:06:00.001+10:00

Fancy dress at a three day music festival, what a great idea.
A guaranteed way to really trip out when you're high.

my friends are in a cool band

2009-04-12T14:48:00.004+10:00

posed

serious

casual

just a few shots from playground weekender festival a few months ago.

Melbourne Big Day Out

2009-04-05T22:28:00.002+10:00

This first shot is a prime example of why i hate autofocus.
It lulls me into a false sense of security, and i forget to concentrate, and as a result i have a fully focused 'man in red shirt' when i wanted guys with australian flag capes, and a girl in serious hot pants.
Oh well...

luckily i went in for a closer shot.

some crazy robot dance moves courtesy of kara and her broken back.

crowd shot- boiler room.

the stillness in between each breath

2009-03-31T16:33:00.003+11:00

I try to meditate sometimes, sometimes i'm successful, sometimes it doesn't go so well.
But one meditation I've tried talks about finding this stillness that exists between a breath, and it does exist, i've felt it, and it's so peaceful, so still.

These photos have that same stillness.

I've just got back two film rolls from the shop, and i'll be posting some more over the next week or so.
Remembering how lovely film is, and how bad my focusing skills can be.

Moran Photo Prize

2009-03-15T18:36:00.002+11:00

A photo of mine made it to the semi-final stage of the 2009 Moran Photo Prize!
It's not really a huge achievement, but it's something!

'Gossip girls'

one track mind

2009-03-15T12:13:00.002+11:00

so at the moment my mind is completely devoted to one project - my final film for uni.
It's quite stressful, but it's really exciting too.

on that note, here's a picture of a freckle on my knee.
If you're lucky, i may post some other pictures of freckles, maybe, maybe not.

2-6 film shoot

2009-03-09T22:53:00.002+11:00

I helped out on a film shoot recently. It's called 2-6 and was written and directed by Imogen Heath and Sam Icklow.

Angela is my friend

2009-03-01T23:35:00.003+11:00

my friend needed some shots done for work and study reasons
we played around with backgrounds, but really they just needed to be fairly simple head shots.
and i just spent some time playing around with colours.

airplane

2009-02-22T20:24:00.004+11:00

the sky is pretty amazing
colour is pretty amazing
the whole world is pretty amazing if you think about it

i'm trying to rediscover childlike wonder and amazement

melbourne

2009-02-22T20:20:00.002+11:00

about a month ago i went to melbourne
i think i took a lot more photos, but i think they're all on film
so i have to find and develop the film (one amongst many rolls)

me and ange hung out at the rooftop cinema

this was an office in an elevator that we found. it was pretty interesting.

Bob Log III @ the Annandale hotel. 13th feb 09

2009-02-20T12:52:00.004+11:00

These are a few photos from my first ever legit photo thing.

Gig photos for a music website called The Dwarf.
It was kind of fun, and I got in for free!

The last one is probably my favourite, and you can check out more photos at The Dwarf

Untitled Kino film

2009-02-13T12:50:00.002+11:00

This is a short film I made with Philip Griffiths for a recent Kino Sydney event.

We trekked out to this awesome ghost town in the blue mountains and had a picnic and shot this.
Some awesome people were involved, and we had a lot of fun.
It reiterated to me that the best way to learn about film is to actually MAKE something.

I start uni again in less than two weeks, and I can't hide how much i am absolutely freaking out about it.
I've put a lot of pressure on myself to do something really good, and now i'm self-doubting.

Callala beach/new years

2009-01-22T20:17:00.000+11:00

still life diptych

2009-01-21T19:36:00.000+11:00

my friends house on the south coast is full of vintage gems.

Adventures with Alyce!

2009-01-20T22:10:00.000+11:00

For me at the moment the though of a mon-fri 9-5 jobs scares the hell out of me.
For one, it means i can't have midweek adventure days with fellow non-9-5ers.
When you don't work 9-5 you can
-eat cupcakes
-visit multiple pubs
-go to the art gallery
-find giant tetris blocks
-eat yummy japanese feasts washed down with plum wine

sashimi, tempura, wasabi tofu, pickles and plum wine. heaven.

too much beer to choose from.

we stumbled upon these giant tetris blocks.
they're pretty awesome, i wish sydney engaged with its laneways more.

the ever useful hat/vase. its a hat, and a vase.
amazing!

crocs are infiltrating by morphing into more normal shoe shapes.

cupcakes are so in right now, as they should be!

all that was left of my tasty chocolate cupcake.

the hollywood hotel looks like a crack den, but we love it.

Lowenbrau / Adventures with Alyce

2009-01-16T19:57:00.000+11:00

2009

2009-01-12T14:58:00.000+11:00

So i had a lovely new years on the south coast of sydney, in a quiet little beachside town called callala.
Good friends, good cocktails, good food (haloumi salads, kangaroo steaks and fruit salad with mint and lime).

There was a fair bit of swimming, sleeping and not much else.

I spent the time thinking about the year that has passed, what worked, what didnt. And some more time thinking about the year to come.
The new year is always an exciting time for me, it promises so much, possibilities are endless.

This photo pretty much represents where my head has been at for the past week or two.

fun with holgaroids

2008-12-29T15:46:00.000+11:00

four eyes

mo-ji-to

kids and christmas lights and icecream

2008-12-24T22:08:00.000+11:00

decorating your house with christmas lights can get to be pretty impressive/grand/expensive where i live.
but the kids love it.
so do the icecream van drivers.

still lifes

2008-12-21T23:40:00.000+11:00

brithday pasting party

2008-12-10T21:23:00.000+11:00

so for my birthday, we wandered the streets armed with longnecks and paste.
it was awesome.

heres some pictures of the rad kids crew.

some of the colours are baaaaaaad, but university has destroyed my access to photoshop, so im stuck with evil evil basic colour crap.
and i hate it. but green and blue is better than orange, everyone knows that.

action shot. Im not sure what of.

the paddle pop lion. "i don't bother with hair care, it just turns out that way" - my ass!

sean says NO TO PAPARAZZO

phil says yes to paparazzo

we got more ink than yo mama

mad face skills

idle hands...

we stole your grandpas glasses

we have moustaches

it may be two dollars. we may have found it in the hairy crack of a fat man. dont judge us.

i dont know. i really dont remember.

my girl is more amazing than yours.

the finale of the evening.

the older eager

the younger eager

our friends the cabbies.

our friend, skippy.

a special one, a favourite.

it goes pop this one.

people try to pay back by getting in my face with a camera. Mines bigger though, not that anyones measuring...

we have more records than you too.

appropriate dance moves.

the cutest couple this side of pluto.

"still life with madonna"

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cacti and a lazy sunday morning.

2008-12-04T21:20:00.000+11:00

lazy sunday mornings

the upside down view of my bedroom window.
lazing around in bed listening to music and daydreaming as i stare at the sun rays coming in is one of my favourite past times.

Chinatown

2008-12-01T18:46:00.000+11:00

Adventures with angela

2008-12-01T18:30:00.000+11:00

I love those meandering days where you do whatever takes your fancy.
I don't use photoshop much, i'm still trying to get the hang of it so my colour tweaking is very hit and miss.
Feel free to criticise.

ohh plum wine...

ohh yummy japanese food

self portrait with lobster

my friends are prettier than yours

EPIC lemon merengue pie

someone who has money should really buy us these feathered caps

the $2000 dress. A M A Z I N G

I hang with the cool kids at weddings

2008-12-01T17:56:00.000+11:00

i looovvvvvveee this one.

secret womens business

oldies but goodies

2008-11-21T17:47:00.000+11:00

Some shots from Mexico, that remind me of how much i miss cross processed film.

the doll pictures are from this little island hidden in the canals of Xochimilco in Mexico City, appropriately called island of the dolls. The island owner fished all these dolls out of the canals and hung them around his house in order to scare off the ghost of a girl who drowned in the canals years earlier. By far one of the creepiest places i have ever been.

surry hills house party

2008-11-11T22:21:00.000+11:00

see the rest here
photos by myself, darren nair, sean rom.

M.A.P. party

2008-11-11T22:05:00.001+11:00

End of year/degree celebrations.

see the rest here
photos by myself, darren nair and sean rom.

charred

2008-11-05T22:03:00.000+11:00

elections

2008-10-28T13:48:00.000+11:00

according to a newspaper poll in australia - if we were going to vote, we would elect McCain and Palin.

I find that really scary.

Apparently, Australians love Sarah Palin. I however, do not support anyone who would legally force me to have my rapists baby.

Cuba

2008-10-25T18:49:00.000+11:00

I've used all of my monthly allowance on flickr, so you're getting treated to some photos from Cuba.
(from jan of this year)

La Habana city view

the ubiquitous image of "el Che"

Dead Dog Corner
someone finally burnt the carcass which stopped the stench, but you could still see the teeth

abandoned pizza stand and cuban propaganda - NO to the war, NO to the block, NO to terrorism. (they consider George Bush a terrorist... which... well... i'm not inclined to totally disagree with)

One of my fav photos - the infamous Cuban Curtain Wall.
In every house we stayed in, there was an entire wall covered by a curtain, not hiding anything, just as decoration. This room was our favourite by far, way too many kitsch knick knacks for us to drool over.

Jason and Janet's wedding

2008-10-22T21:57:00.000+11:00

It was my cousins wedding on the weekend, so I took a few snaps at the reception. I'm still learning how to use my external flash...
but i think there's some nice shots here of everyone happy and dancing.

yes this is the face you make after handing your very expensive camera and lens to a four year old.

the bride and groom

the whole family

She's my woman and im gunna dance with her!

twist and shout!

love where you live.

2008-10-17T20:16:00.000+11:00

This house it just around the corner from mine. A guy named Fenton lives there.
All of his neighbours consider him a drunk pain in the ass, but i love the inspirational phrases he sticks up outside his house, like this one "Yes you can".
The previous one said "Fear is the thief of dreams".
I think we could all take some advice from Fenton.

the new art of dirt tagging.

Queen St Gallery

2008-10-10T21:00:00.000+11:00

This is a short doco I made along with Donna Chang and Melissa Pullicino a year and bit ago at UTS.
It screened in the 2007 Byron Bay Film Festival and was a runner up in the 2007 Shorts on the Shore Film Festival.

It's about an art project in inner-city Sydney and the way in which it creates a sense of community that is lacking in most suburbs.

I've been writing songs in my head

2008-10-01T21:36:00.000+10:00

i don't know if they will ever come to fruition, or exist in physical form.

But so far they are tentatively titled:

1. When I'm eating almonds i think of you
2. J.E.L.L.Y B.E.A.N. (you're a mechanical pig)
3. Sometimes i wish bad things for you, then i remember you're an O.K. guy.

a boy once wrote me a song, and so maybe i should return the favour of writing some for my friends.

and this is what they will sound like:

"The Switch"

2008-09-29T17:26:00.000+10:00

Here's some snaps from a friends short film that i production designed.
The shoot went well, which i attribute to a predominantly female crew.

(this ones missing the blood smears unfortunately)

holgaroid

2008-09-21T15:48:00.000+10:00

life is holgarific!

2008-09-05T22:54:00.000+10:00

I've been thinking a lot lately, about how I take things too seriously and think too much.
Time is being wasted.

So i'm sending myself this little reminder to laugh more and smile more and remember what's really important.

That there is nothing more magical than a true and friendly gesture.
Maybe you don't greet that person as you walk by because your worried they won't remember you, or you think that youre not that close, or that they weren't going to acknowledge you either. Maybe they were thinking the exact same thing.
And maybe, you would say hi, and have an actual conversation with them, and you would enrich each other's day.

This photo above, was taken with a toy plastic camera called Holga, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The dance floor lit up and changed colours with the rhythm of the songs. We giggled as we watched an elderly lady dance to Nelly's 'It's gettin hot in herrre', and that old lady inspires me.
She makes me ask myself, why do we wait until we are old to live so freely?
Have we really got that much to lose?

Car Yard Series

2008-08-22T23:39:00.000+10:00

This was a photo series I put together in a photo class at uni, it explores the human traces left behind in a car yard. I focused on the traces that contrast with the polished presentation of the showroom - the smiley face on the white board, oil stains on the pavement and the wilting pot plants relegated to the empty car park.

Nostalgia/Mi Querido Mexico

2008-08-15T18:01:00.000+10:00

I spent last year living/studying/traveling in Mexico, and while I love Australia, Mexico also has a good chunk of my heart. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the people, the culture and the music mystified me and I really miss it. Lo extrano tanto.
At the moment I've been listening to some Mexican and Latin American music by Manu Chao and a little band from Mexico called Sonex who I saw perform live in a sweaty little bar in Xalapa - I dare say it was the BEST gig I have ever seen, lightshows and musical genius will never compare to being completely passionate in the music you are performing and passionate about your culture, your stories and your history. I can't help but be transported back to specific times and places in Mexico when I hear certain songs.

Since I'm on this little nostalgia kick, I thought I would post a photo from Mexico, and then looking back over them all, I decided that I cannot narrow it down to less than six (and that is being brutal about my choices).

This was the first photo I remember taking both in Mexico and on my then-new Film SLR camera. I wasn't even sure how to use it properly, i remember barely checking the exposure or the focus and just clicking away, afraid of missing an opportunity. This photo is so typically Mexican, I mean its got a bunch of donkeys in it for crying out loud!

This was the first photo I printed in my first photography class, it was pretty exciting. I'm obsessed with lines and perspective. It's of a hostel we stayed in called La Giraffa Hostel, it had bed bugs.

One of the first photos I took again, this is a Mexican sink. I never quite found out what the stick broom thing is for, but its where we washed our clothes by hand (only the ones you were afraid the laundromat might shrink).

This is one of my favourites, it's the cobblestone road to Xico (Hee-Co), a small town outside of Xalapa where there are some beautiful waterfalls. I remember my legs were eaten alive by bugs and the bites scarred for months, we were driven back to town by an eleven-year-old.

This was taken in another nearby small town called Jalcomulco, where there are people who can turn into animals - they're called Nahuales. We spent the day drinking beer and I kissed a boy while we were sitting on rocks in the middle of a river - which was romantic except for the old man bathing a donkey nearby.

This graffiti was on the side of a little Mexican bar, a Cantina on a little island surrounded by Carribbean waters. Only Mexican men really drank there, and the graffiti says "With my solitude, I will die". I think this photo works better in colour (i have a colour copy, the wall is white with red and yellow lines) but this graffiti really affected me when I first read it, and still does.

So I'm done with the nostalgia, for now.

In other news, I'm starting a new job soon at a certain Government Funded Media Agency doing transcription for radio and television. Just thought you might like to know that your tax payer dollars are going to a good cause i.e. me.

Read this book if you want to know nothing about everything.

2008-08-05T21:10:00.000+10:00

The Psychic Soviet - Ian F. Svenonius

This little pink book fits perfectly in my hand bag and the chapters are short enough to read on train or bus trips or when your waiting around.
Its funny, and full of crack conspiracy theories about everything from the fall of the former soviet union to vampirism and rock and roll.

Things I learned from the Psychic Soviet:
1. We take more antidepressants due to an imbalance in psychological geopolitics after the fall of the soviet union - also known as "post-soviet depression"
2. Bram Stokers Dracula addresses the genetic concerns of Europes upper classes - the quest for genetic purity.
3. All cultures engage in Vampirism by adopting the preferred beverage of the conquered nation i.e. Beer after the fall of Germany in WWII, vodka after Russia and Coffee as we subjugate the third world.
4. Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones and Back in the USSR by the Beatles reflect intra-commie conflict. Sypathy being Maoist and USSR being Soviet based. Also, when asked "can you guess my name" in Sympathy, the name is in fact not "The Devil" but "Historical Materialism".
5. The rock and roll fable of Dylan going electric represented the struggle between market forces and Communist egalitarianism.
6. Lord of the Rings is the woman haters bible - the evil ring that rules them all represents the vagina.

and more
but forgive me if i am a little confused about them

little monsters pulling faces

2008-07-30T12:26:00.000+10:00

i love their impersonations of rockstars - amazing

Night Photos

2008-07-24T18:46:00.000+10:00

Bobby and I creeped around "the 'stanes" late one night, freezing our boobies off and playing with my new camera. I love blur, i love low light, i have in the past been my photography teachers worst nightmare. Although he did advise us to steal from the best, know tradition, add yourself. so im stealing from impressionist painters ok.

Cheapskate Olympics - update no.1

2008-07-24T18:18:00.000+10:00

Cheapskate Olympics
is a way of making competitive the act of being stingy or miserly or a 'cheapskate'. It involves participants creating new ways to save money or create activities that are enjoyable AND most importantly cheaper than what you are normally used to.

My first Cheapskate Olympics activity - one of my biggest weaknesses is buying myself presents when im not feeling great, another big weakness is books. So i gradually built a wishlist on amazon, got around ten books delivered and then wrapped them in old newspaper (see picture above). So each fortnight i get to unwrap a new book.
- i get a little present every fortnight which will keep me sane whilst trying to save money
- i usually don't get through a book a fortnight, so it will probably last even longer than originally anticipated
- the gift in turn presents me with an activity that does not cost me money - i can relax with a cup of tea and my new book under a blanky
- AND i saved money buying the books off amazon! - i'm all for supporting local bookstores, but my wallet is not. One of the books is Learning to Love you more by Miranda July and Harell M. Fletcher, in a local bookstore it retails at around $50-$55, on amazon it is $13.57 US, with postage to Australia it still cost less than $25! So on that book alone i saved nearly $30. With all the books i bought to last me the next 6 months or more i saved at least $200
i definitely earned some cheapskate stars.

A friend of mine - Kara- has implemented her own first Cheapskate Olympics activity - she bought a box of chai tea from the supermarket and instead of purchasing chai tea every morning before work she makes her own and takes it with her - saving her $4 dollars a day!
gold stars for you lady!

Our efforts shame in comparison to Cara who vowed to not buy anything new in 2008! Check out her facebook group here and see if your up for the challenge.

and why is there a nun in the photo? i saw her for sale at my local vinnies and was strangely compelled to buy her.

Reading tea leaves and trying to find balance in my life

2008-07-23T02:59:00.000+10:00

so my tea leaves are trying to tell me something. And i'm really trying.

last night we made plans to all meet in Denmark. See a little bit of europe and the middle east, then take the trans-siberian railway from moscow, through mongolia to china and come home through japan. hopefully it will provide the balance to another year of working for money and not for fun.

It has led me to create the highly competitive 'fun minus money' game, or maybe it should be called 'cheap-skate olympics'. You compete to see who can come up with more activities that are fun and cost very very little. it would work well except i have no one to compete with, competing with myself is not going to work - both parties will agree to give up and that they really deserve those clothes/chocolate/wine/camera.