Yoshi Yamamoto

Well Christmas is just around the corner, and frankly on my Christmas Clothing wish list there is one request... "every single piece of clothing Yoshi Yamamoto has EVER designed". I feel this a fair request don't you?

The man is a genius!...

(all photos from gq.com)

...and he is probably one of my favourite designers ever.

Love!

Song:
Winter Wonderland by Macy Gray
Not usually a fan of Ms. Gray, but this version of Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith's Christmas classic, 'Winter Wonderland' has me in such a festive spirit! Recorded in 2000 and used in the M&S adverts one year, the song is a very warming, quaint, charming version which, surprisingly, Macy's vocals quit perfectly. The jingle-y bells and sweet snare drums, combined with the bird-like backing vocals make the whole thing very snow-y, the kind of song you'd love listening to while out in the cold, trampling over snow and wrapped up in a big coat, scarf and mittens, maybe ice-skating, Christmas shopping or taking a romantic stroll through a park in London. In fact, listening to the track right now I feel a giddy buzz only Christmas time can bring, a feeling of serenity, excitement, romance and joy, Christmas has this startling effect on me, and this song summarises the distinct Christmas day feeling for me, the one I get on the day of laziness, peacefulness, simplicity and a general calm. Ah! God i love Christmas!

Merry Christmas :)

All I Want For Christmas Is Chris Bailey

The man has stolen my heart once again...

(Photos from wwd.com)

These being 5 images from the Pre-Fall 2010 collection are example of why I LOVE Burberry Prorsum so much. When Winter comes, Burberry wipe the floor with all other brands, no one does Fall like Burberry. You can read this on the coats, smell it in the knitwear and feel it in the tailoring, Burberry owns Fall.

I for one am extremely excited about seeing the full collection, shown in Milan in mid January... SO CLOSE!

Oh what I would give to own one of the stunning coats in this Pre-collection collection.

Song:

The Promise by Girls Aloud

Christmas is here, I feel comfortable announcing my love for this song. I wouldn't consider this song or group a guilty pleasure, I feel quite open about all music I listen to, but at Christmas this song is played a whole lot more through my speakers than usual. Granted, it was released around this time last year, and maybe this is why it puts me in such a festive mood, and why I suddenly had an urge to listen to it a few weeks ago in the build up to Christmas. Maybe its the melody, the horns, the maracas or the strings, but something about this song screams snow, cosy fireplaces and tinsel. Before this song I was no big fan of Girls Aloud, they'd never caught my ear, made me particularly like their music, though when it was released I did secretly quite like 'Sound of the Underground', and at a time in my life when I'd moved on from S-Club and Steps and onto Rush and Marilyn Manson, that song was quite the guilty pleasure. But 'The Promise' seems to have opened a flood gate of sorts, and Girls Aloud have enticed me into loving them. Unfortunately they seem to be on a break now but good old Cheryl is keeping the Girls Aloud spirit alive with her solo career, which I must say I'm quite liking. Welcome to Christmas, this song has dragged me into a festive wonderland.

Honey, I'm Home

Well I'm now home for Christmas, 1 of 9 terms completed, and its a surreal experience, being home, having not seen the place for near 3 months, everything seems quite odd and different. However, it's good to be home!

As I promised... my final 12 photographs from my Interiors Project:

With this project I explored phobias, religion, social taboos, literature ('The Picture of Dorian Gray' - Oscar Wilde & 'Lolita' - Vladimir Nabokov), modern art, torture and war.

Each box has a theme, reason/meaning behind it, either based on a story, book, biblical message or concept. One of the boxes (my elbow in a box covered in melted wax) is based around my opinion of modern art and the likes of Tracey Emin and Martin Creed. I am currently formulating another blog essay on this subject.

Hope you like the work :)

Song:
Hessian Peel by Opeth
Not really what you'd call a fan of growling in music, I often find it alienating, a bit useless and pointless, in fact at one point, if it growled it has crap in my opinion. This was until I came across a little album called 'Ghost Reveries' by a little band called Opeth a few years back, and since then I can officially say that I like one band with a growl. Opeth aren't like other growl-y bands, the growl isn't tinny or flat, the music isn't *thud-thud-thud-thud-thud GRRROOOWWWWWLLLL* Opeth have an amazing song writing ability, a unique way of incorporating mellow, tranquil and haunting acoustic sections with fierce, aggressive and (dare I say it) "epic" explosive metal sections. This is apparent in the track off their latest album 'Waterhsed', 'Hessian Peel', for the first 5 and a half minutes the song is a beautifully haunting ensemble of acoustic guitar, simply delicate drums, strings, and other ghostly effects, with Mikael's vocals bringing a painstakingly passionate story to the song. The song then kicks in after a pretty piano section with a crisp, violent explosion of noise and Mikael's growl, a growl so gut-wrenching, so powerful and snappy that I sends a shiver down my spine, he is a master of this sound, a voice of the devil, and while I find such things clichéd and tacky, Opeth seem to elevate above tacky, creating music so dense, deep and dark that I have listened to the same songs more times than I can count, know them off by heart and even play drums along to most, and they still grab me and effect me the way they did the first time I understood them. Every listen is fresh and new, and their music is constantly within my "currently listening to" playlist.

Proud Flesh

Wow, It's been ages since I last posted, but this is due to work and other such hooplar.
Hey, I'm hosting a radio show!

You can listen here: http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/140/student-life-6/student-radio-353/radiowave-2379.html

Anyway. I decided to post now because I've recently been doing quite an interesting project on interiors and photographing an interior whilst trying to make a psychological comment.
I came across this series by the photographer Sally Mann, they are, I think, quite different to her usual work, her photographs of her children that i knew her for are quite... clean maybe? Uncomfortable at times but they have an unscratched, young aesthetic to them, and I was quite surprised to see this series in a recent edition of Aperture entitled 'Proud Flesh'.

(Photos from jmcolberg.com)

These aren't the same photos in the magazine but they are some from the series, which has now been released as a book... which I can't WAIT to get my hands on. The photos are just SO stunning!

The series focuses on Sally Mann's husband Larry, she works only with her family and this series moves the focus off her children and onto her spouse. The quality of the prints is incredible, Joel-Peter Witkin-esque in its messiness and destruction, each one scratched, burnt, manipulated and mistreated to create a surface that really suits the subject matter. She is focusing on age and the aging process, decay and time. The way she frames a foot or a hand, or her husband's head resting on a bed almost gives a sense of Frankensteinian inspiration, the body parts are severed by the edge of the frame, they become lone body parts, the photos become sort of scientific documents of Larry's form, displayed in an incredible way.

I truly dislike perfect prints, there is banality about a print free of accidents I feel, if I shoot on film I want mistakes to happen, I don't want to feel like the film is forcing me to treat it like gold, let it scratch, let it get a bit dirty or wear, it all adds to the nostalgia of film, and to me it all adds to the aesthetic of an image. This is, for me, one extreme advantage of film over digital, the ability to create beautiful scratches and imperfections to an image, a digital photograph edited in Photoshop to look the way Sally Mann's images do always fall short, they look tacky and uninspiring. The fragility of film makes it perfect for imperfect photos.

Maybe this is why I love Joel-Peter Witkin's work so much, he absorbs the delicacy of film and uses mishaps to his advantage, most of the time making accidents purposeful.

What do you think?

Maybe once I've finished my project I will post my photographs inspired by Sally Mann and Witkin.

Song:

Hearing Damage by Thom Yorke

From the soundtrack of the new Twilight Film 'New Moon', this track was possibly the highlight of the film for me, it features in a montage near the middle of the film in which the Wolves chase Victoria and Bella drives to the cliff from which she jumps, and maybe there a clip of Edward in South America too? I don't recall. Anyway, This whole scene really stood out for me, the music was incredibly well fitting and in general the way they pulled this montage off impressed me a lot. The song is possibly one of the only Thom Yorke (including Radiohead) songs I like, the electronics at the start and end (when the sporadic electric snare takes over the song) really create a feeling of pace and a sensation that would suit a modern day action film, in fact when I listen to this song I think of Twilight, maybe this is because I was watching Twilight the first time I heard it, but it creates an image of the film stronger than any soundtrack has done for me, aside from maybe the classic lead track from 'Titanic'. I even think Yorke's voice suits this song incredibly well, and as you can probably guess, I'm not a big fan of his vocals.

Land's End

Project 1 on my course is entitled "Whispers, Time & Place" and for this I must venture to a surrounding area and represent this place through photography. I wanted to avoid doing anything in a close proximity to Falmouth so I decided on Land's End (after listening to the song of the same name by Patrick Wolf).

This weekend my flatmates and I caught a train down to Penzance, then a taxi to a campsite near Sennen Cove where we pitched our 3 man tent for 4 people. We then walked down to the nearest beach for sunset/barbecue/photoshoot 1.

My project idea was to present Land's End through abstract, minimalist photographs to achieve an emotion/mood/atmosphere rather than pretty pictures or cliched tourist images of the cliffs, sights and people who work there. I wanted to present an idea of loneliness and solitude through simple horizon shots...

The last photo is just a shot of Fran and Laura, i like photographing the sun, especially when there's something in front of it as it gives those really picturesque rays of light and lens flares that somewhat sum up summer time photography for me.

The weekend was amazing, sunset and sunrise spent on a beach, it was heaven.

Land's End has always fascinated me, and while I didn't go to ACTUAL Land's End (as you have to pay, some fool made it a tourist attraction site with fees and silly touristy things) visiting Penzance and the far south west was fascinating. I intend to go to REAL Land's End soon to take daytime shots.

Song:

I Woke Up Today by Port O'Brien

Another song introduced to me via Grace :D :D and one that will stick with me forever! The first track of the album 'All We Could Do Was Sing', 'I Woke Up Today' is a punchy, upbeat, uplifting, feel good summer song that will always make you smile! The vocals are astounding, shouted and chanted like a merry choir, like the kind of group you'd love to have wake you up every morning, get you set to face the day, take on anything that the world might throw at you. I've never heard a song as powerfully uplifting as this. Miserable? Upset? Fed-up? This track is the perfect antidote. It's like a happy A Silver Mt Zion, powerful, emotional, interesting and extremely well written. I could rave on about this track for ages but I feel I've summed it up the best I can, no other song makes me feel as full of happiness as this, no other song makes me want to DIVE out of bed and dance ( :S usually the monster i am in the morning would need so much more than a catchy guitar riff, punchy chanted vocals and a stomping snare drum to get him up).

Pinhole Camera

This week we began our first real workshops/projects at Uni. Starting off simple with Pinhole cameras with Justin Quinnell. Yesterday we created simple cameras from beer cans, today we made more complex ones for 35mm film from matchboxes which was a hoot.

Here are some of my beer can images:

Both are self-portraits, the first was exposed for 20 seconds, the second for 4 and a half minutes. I'm quite proud of these.

I'm 4 shots into my 35mm pinhole camera, hopefully I'll be getting some developed tomorrow, fingers and toes!

Song:

Fables by The Dodos

This song is SO catchy! One of the only ones I recall from the set they played at End of the Road festival, most likely due to the drummer's interesting rhythms and style in this track. 'Fables' is the also the first track on the most recent album 'Time to Die' that i really loved from the first listen, the rhythm of the percussion, strumming of the guitar and vocals are brilliant! It's hard not to move to this song because it has a beat and a force that drives you to just fall in love. It's hard to believe this sound is formed from 3 people, Meric Long (guitars and vocals), Logan Kroeber (drums/percussion) and Keaton Snyder (Vibraphone), together they form a sound that bites, that sounds full, that sounds quite unique aswell. Infact the whole album is full of catchy songs such as 'Two Medicines', 'Longform', 'A Time To Die' and 'This Is A Business', 'Time To Die' is a very strong, well written album that feel fresh, exciting and new in the modern world of Indie Music.

Gucci S/S 2010

Well, i write this now from my new home of Falmouth (I'm at University), on which i intend to write a post once I've explored a little more than I have.

In the meanwhile, I only just saw the Gucci collection from Milan for S/S 2010 and... WOW! A fantastic return to form after I really disliked the A/W 2009 collection. Frida's women's collection pretty much followed the Men's collection I mentioned in my Milan post a few months ago, especially in terms of themes/materials and colour schemes, it is classy, stylish, architectural in its detailing and sculptural in it's wearability (if that makes sense :S)...

What I love here is the use of elements you might find on adventure or sports wear, and how she used this look to create quite interesting features, patterns and detailing, is a sort of classy high end, GOOD Chav incorporated look that works really nicely and isn't at all chavvy! If you know what I mean. The shoes are also WOW, but then again they always are when Frida's around.

After the glam, tacky night out vibe of last season season, this was refreshing, a less in your face, more stylish, less sparkly and more dignified Gucci!

Song:

Surf Solar by Fuck Buttons
I wanted to do a whole post on this album, because the new release from noise, dance, ambient whatever duo Fuck Buttons is stunning. It's (i feel) a step up from 'Street Horrrsing' that suggests a definite progress, maturity and development, it feels this time like they've become more, they've done more, they've gotten better at what they do, it feels like a more intelligent album I think. 'Surf Solar' is the opening track on the album, a 10 minute wonder of trance inducing drone and repetition that sets the scene of the whole album (which as with the first, blends seamlessly as one long song) it is darker and dancier I feel, more emotional and more "ambient" (I say this meaning, less in the way of harsh angles and changes take place on the album, it is one you could get lost in of fall into and not be snapped out by a sudden change of pace, sound or volume, and in this respect i consider it more ambient as it is more atmospheric and easier to fall into a trance within) album. Fuck Buttons seem to be a whole genre in themselves, creating music that's fresh, tense and easily loveable, its not just dancy, its drone, it's noise, it's fun and unusual while I'm sure kids into dance music will love it! If you liked the first album, this is even better.