Feather's on ya blind side

Well it's been a long time, lots of things have happened. I've mainly been getting ready for my baby coming into the world.

An incoming child into your life has the unexpected byproduct of you trying to get round all your friends and family before the baby comes. This is presumably because you won't be leaving the house as soon as you have a little poop factory. Well one such trip was to Lotherton Hall in West Yorkshire with my parents. This place is a great get away, it has a big house that I've never been in and a bird garden that I haven't been in but not for many a year. My mother reminds me it was primary school I last went round here, it's funny how much I remembered, I also remember coming with friends on our street which holds good memories of perfect summers.

So on this day it was a very warm April day, we had ice cream at the end. Even though we came from York and was held up and my parents come from a different direction we both entered into the cars waiting to park up area at the same time...mental!

Anyway here are my photos of the birds we saw. I did love doing close up shots, I like the photographs where you can really see the feathers on the birds, so I hope you enjoy them too. Just click on one to be taken my flickr page.

(title is The Twilight Sad reference)

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – The Duchess, York – 11th June 2010

I used to write for a living; I say 'a living' I used to get paid in gig tickets and the world's supply of rock cd's to write decent reviews of cd's or live gigs. It was great and if it could pay the mortgage, car insurance, gas, electric, water etc etc then i would have done it forever. I'm aware some very lucky people get to do it forever but it requires being exactly that: lucky, and short of moving to London or Bath (oddly) to run blindly for that dream I sidelined it in favour of working in Marketing.

But recently I found myself pulled into writing again, I got in contact with a contact at the Press in York and asked him if they would use it, he said yes and by today it was in Print on the famous (it isn't) page 17 of The Press.

So with an image here it is...
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Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – The Duchess, York – 11th June 2010
It’s not often the heavyweights of Hip-Hop drop by to our fair city, but this unlikely duo of electronica maverick Dan Le Sac and spoken word poet of the people Scroobius Pip came to The Duchess to show people just how much fun 2 people can have on stage.

The anticipation for the main act was fuelled by a succession of DJ’s playing some old skool hip-hop for a good hour and half before finally the lights slightly faded and the unlikely figure of Dan Le Sac appeared to begin the night. With a gleaming smile Dan knew what was about to happen and started his many electronic devices to begin the opener to 2009’s debut album ‘Angels’, ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped’. This track started what was to be an assault of beats, singing and intelligent rap that the assembled crowd went crazy for.

Rather embarrassing for Dan his electronic drum sampler managed to break towards the end of this opener, however you wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t for his mock crying as he looked at the sound man. Other highlights included tracks from their new album ‘The Logic Of Chance’ such as the uplifting ‘Get Better’ and the out right party track ‘Sick Tonight’. Everything by this duo is done with maximum impact with a few tracks harking back to Pip’s spoken work background which include acting and slight costume changes to assist the story telling nature of the songs. One such track see’s Pip claiming he is going to run for the President of the UK (as it sounds better than Prime Minister), and reads from his manifesto which includes claims such as ‘I swear as a citizen of this country to not just sit around moaning’ – he’s got my vote!

Towards the end of the gig, he uses costume to tell the story of a series of events from different people’s view including a security guard and a 5 year old boy, this is done with such skill and finesse it can be at times awe inspiring.

The gig ends with the Radiohead sampled ‘Letter from God to Man’ which is based on a fictional letter from the big man to His subjects, which is such a big idea and executed with brilliance. The crowd left the Duchess not only with the sense their entry fee was well worth it but with ideas of religion, social responsibility, crime and politics whizzing around their minds, this was not only a gig but an education for the crowd.

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So everyone don't forget your dreams just make sure you have money coming in and keep them alive!

Video killed no one and made everything better

Hi All,

Been wanting to do this for a while - one of my favourite websites of maybe all time is Vimeo. This site hosts incredible high res videos of all sorts of art projects, music videos and documentaries. So without further a do here are few of my favourite and why... sorry for no embedding wordpress is not a fan of Vimeo.

1.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.
This video is just so good, I won't even attempt to explain how its done but Sam has made everything look like they are models! CRAZY stuff people, crazy.

2.

Sigur Ros - Við spilum endalaust - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
So now we see Sigur Ros playing a small French cafe. That's right one the greatest and most atmospheric bands playing a cafe, which is sort of like U2 playing a social club. This video shows a massive band stripped to their bones and they are still good.

3.

65injapan from 65daysofstatic on Vimeo.
My favourite band on tour in Japan. This was a while ago but it reminds me of being on 'tour' with She's Not Dead and how great it was, we didn't go to Japan but we had a lot of fun and I think this strikes a cord with me because of that.

4.

ACDC Vs Iron Man 2 - Architectural Projection Mapping on Rochester Castle from seeper on Vimeo.
This video shows how high powered lens and projectors can be the coolest things ever. And so another great band AC DC get projected on to a castle its only fitting really.

4.

Memory One from Bill on Vimeo.
This video is great, it is like being in a dream. Everything featured seems like the biggest deal and everything is given special care like you are only focusing on one thing at any time.

5.

Work from Michael Rianda on Vimeo.
This last video is just made with such love, care and humour it made me laugh and cry at the same time PURE BRILLIANCE.

So there you go, my favourite videos so far but seriously check this website out it is great, maybe even get involved and make vids yourself.

Much Love
R

Through a lens I see God

I have for some time been taking photographs of various subjects and  locations both light and dark - these images come from a day out with Pete and Emily (http://sparkleandshade.blogspot.com/) at Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire. So without further ado here we go...

Forgetting drumming for a moment, I have never had such an activity where I feel more at home doing it;  taking photos comes so naturally to me and it's great to see the above come out bursting with life. More images exist on my flickr page here http://www.flickr.com/photos/48361597@N07/

In other news my band We Sell Seashells are doing well and getting interest on the local scene of Leeds, check us out athttp://www.myspace.com/wesellseashellsband and let me know what you think. The most recent songs are sessions so listen to them to get a good idea of what we are doing right now.

I've also been listening to some funk recently, which is everyone's guilty pleasure if we are honest. If someone could recommend some key funk to bulk up my music collection that would be great, I of course know of the James Brown (soul brother number one) and also little known funk band 'The Apples'

And finally here is the blog of my football team practises so do have a look and see what I do on Wednesdayhttp://stpaulsfootball.blogspot.com/

Easter images

So I'm trying a few blog sites out to see what they are like. As most of my friends use blogger I thought I'd give it a try. Well over the Easter break I took some photos with my ace new Nikon D3000 which I must say every time I use it proves it's self in terms of it's range of shots and performance in low light situations. So the following photos have been touched up in Photoshop 7 (that's right I'm old school), don't worry they don't look like they have butchered because well I'm goooood at Photoshop so if you know anything about adobe's box of tricks I've edited the light / dark curve and also colour highlights but I have typed up the details next to each image. Hope you like...

This one has had blue, green and yellow colour high / low lights and a the dark light curves was slightly tweaked. The image and indeed the rest below are taken by a Nikon D3000 with a VR 18-30mm lens.

This image was taken down a farmers road and I actually have this as my background on my laptop. Green and yellow colours slightly highlighted with light dark curves altered to bring the road track out a little.

 I mainly changed the blue in the sky by using the light / dark curves to highlight it better. I think the green colour was brought out more on this image just to give it a helping hand.









This is taken at Rode Heath church, Nr Congelton. It strikes me as a very 'wedding book' photo which surprised me as it really wasn't what I was going for when I took the shot. The red, green and yellow have been brought out via a mixture of colour highlights and curves as mentioned above.






Portchester Castle Nr Portsmouth, just curves and green highlight. A stunning location to take photos!

And this final image is of my darling wife at Portchester Castle, I love this image as it was just a quick snap but looks so perfect. Curves and green highlights were used to bring out the stone work and grass.












You can find all my images on my flickR photostream so do let me know your thoughts on my work, so until then all the best and have a nice day.

Roy