Chris
Chris, never a year older than 26. I went back to the Cuvrystreet in Berlin the day after I heard the news, the place by the riverside where I last saw him. I bought a flower and thought of the times when I cut his hair underneath street lightning, talked about French girls, defied the sun in the park. Thought about his perfectly timed remarks, his humility, his ripped trousers he refused to call trousers, his high-pitched humming, his soothing eyes, stripe patterns and his incredible smile. Goodbye Chris.
Mistletoe
Karma is dysfunctional but good-natured. I’m patiently awaiting her return from the desert where the trees grow thorn apples and snowberries.
ON REPEAT: Exlovers - Blowing Kisses
Running on the backstreets
Brussels-North.
Where you see a dead body on the frozen pavement on Monday morning and drink glasses of wine on a snowed under balcony on Thursday morning.
ON REPEAT: Cee Lo Green -No One's Gonna Love You
(Band of Horses cover)
Hiding on the backstreets
Antwerp-South.
Where your mother takes you to a Kings of Leon concert on Tuesday evening and where all the other evenings tend to get equally confusing too.
ON REPEAT: Maps & Atlases - Solid Ground
Poppy’s story, part 3
After the second roll I could already tell that Poppy and I weren’t going to last. I did put in a third roll against better judgement. For better and worse I thought, in the Netherlands and through hospital corridors.
Poppy has many good characteristics: beautiful sparkly appearance, quirky and easy to hang with. Then there was that other side that wore me out: she made me feel trapped in not one but 9 little boxes. And that’s when Poppy and I broke up.
That was the end of Poppy & me… until further notice.
ON REPEAT: Starfucker - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Poppy’s story, part two
I blamed all the mishaps on initial awkwardness, the uncomfortable beginnings. I was sure that I could make this work with a little effort and a lot of passion.
So I gave her flowers…
… introduced her to the family …
… and took her for strolls in the park.
But how little I knew.
(to be continued)
ON REPEAT: The Whigs-I don't even care about the one I love
Poppy’s story, part one
In March Marre asked on Twitter if anyone was interested in one of his cameras, a Pop 9 lomo. It had caught my eye at the Lomography website before, so at the next gig we both attended – Wild Beasts & Villagers – he presented me with a golden lover, Poppy.
After some developments I discovered that things weren’t always what they seemed with Poppy. What you see isn’t what you get. Nothing I couldn’t fix, if only I would lean a little more to the left and looked upwards a little more I could compensate for her flaws I figured.
ON REPEAT: The Black Keys - Never Give You Up
disposable WOMEN – Germany
That’s where the story should have ended. The next morning in Paris I got into the van thinking we would drive through Luxembourg where I would get a train back home. The GPS led us past Luxembourg. I ended up in Germany instead.
In beautiful Heidelberg.
and strange Offenbach.
And in Berlin, where I ate the best pizza ever and I want/will live one day. Does anyone know what those blue things are in the picture below by the way?
After Berlin I went back home – not functioning properly. After being together for almost every second of the day and night they could as well have removed a limb or two. But after a day or two everything went back to normal and I got the much-needed rest and clean laundry. Especially the latter was a necessity. Puh.
ON REPEAT: Women - Heat Distraction
disposable WOMEN – Amsterdam & Paris
Two weeks ago I went to Amsterdam to see those 5 Canadians who I hadn’t seen for what seemed an eternity. After a huge delay I arrived in Amsterdam where I was greeted by the characteristic bicycles and rain. Of course I got lost and of course I ended up in a thunderstorm, arriving 4 hours later than planned.
But who would care if you finally get to see lovely people back and meet new people. Like Andy, a British student who I started talking to by accident while looking for Studio 80. Or Nick Helderman, a young photographer whose work I admire and I’d recommend to anyone interested in music photography.
Next day I went with them to Paris where they shared a line-up with the band Nurses. Their album Apple’s Acre made it into my best of 2009 list.
I’m not sure I’ll ever get the appeal of Paris. I love the streets - if only they could be deserted, I can’t find it in my heart to love the Parisians as Americans (and Canadians) seem to. I prefer understated.
When two of the Americans and I stopped for crêpes on our way back to the hotel, I discovered that Paris’ negative attitude towards Americans isn’t a myth created in the europhobic, paranoid American mind. It’s a disgrace how the crêpes vendors tried to swindle money out of them. I’m taking the American side on this one. The nicest people I met in Paris were a booker from Bordeaux and the drummer in El Boy Die from Lyon. You’re not even trying Paris.
I didn’t lose any sleep over it. I did over Matt’s weird but funny sleeping habits.
ON REPEAT: Women - Eyesore ON REPEAT: Nurses - Caterpillar
The last of the Yashica
No really, this will be the last picture. I might buy a new one in time, but for now I’m Yashicaless once again. It’s a shame. I don’t want to go back to the dSLR, it always seems to point its finger at my inadequacy. You really do sweet Canon.
ON REPEAT: Rococo - Arcade Fire "They seem wild but they are so tame."
Deer caught in sunlight
ON REPEAT: Wonderful Life - Hurts
We had a meet ‘n greet with Hurts at Pukkelpop last week. Truth be told, we got off on the wrong foot with the record label at first, but when that got sorted out we were engaged in a short but sweet conversation with Adam & Theo. Jarri (of Disco Naïveté) has put the conversation up on his blog, read it here.
It doesn’t get me down and I feel okay
If it can make us stronger, why keep the the rough patch unknown territory?
It’s not as if we have a say in it anyway.
ON REPEAT: Remember Me (Blue Boy cover) - Tame Impala
It’s sickening at what speed these Australians eat sweets.
Yashica
Skip back to a couple of months ago. I was rummaging through the closet where I found some analogue cameras stashed. Most of them where very basic point and shoot cameras but amongst them was also a Yashica GS. Nice retro look and good quality lens, but my brother told me he had taken the camera to a shop last year where they told him the camera wasn’t of much use as they no longer produced batteries for it. Early ending of the Yashica adventure.
Skip to a couple of weeks ago. I met Mike and the next day I noticed he was using a Yashica GSN. He let me in on the secrets and explained to me how to use it with and without (as he does) a battery. Later that week I got my Yashica out when meeting up with Tish and Izzy. I didn’t really read much on it and I wasn’t even sure I had loaded the film correctly but working with the camera felt rather good.
Skip to today. My mom passed by the drugstore and picked up my prints while she was at it. I didn’t expected too much from it because by now I realized I made some fatal mistakes on both shutter speed timing as choosing the ISO. But between the many blurry and underexposed pictures there were some promises of what could happen when Yashica and I get to know eachother a little better.
Looking forward to go Yashica shooting with Mikey when he’s back in Europe, even if it means I’ll have to wait until February.
Ah well…
I’ve taken the last blog post off because I’ve decided to start posting again. I can’t say that I missed it and I must apologize because everything will still be pretty much as shitty as before, but it will be nice to take my mind off things. I’m still sticking with what I said earlier though…
I love cats and Kurt Cobain, exactly.
Hermine (overlap Gerlin, Marie & Jonathan)
Picture taken with lovely Marie’s lovely Holga.
I’ve got some new cameras to work with, I had a hard time claiming some of them. Tonight’s Yashica night.
The force of habit makes me change my ways
I haven’t been able to find my battery recharger for a good three weeks now. Surely that won’t surpise anyone. I can’t spare the money for a new battery so my camera will be out of use for a little longer. Perhaps this is the ideal opportunity to unleash my ugly drawings again. Perhaps I’ll draw birds the entire week and only publish sketches of birds from now on.
Sounds like a plan!
Here’s a photo I took with Jack’s Lomo blue filter camera over the summer.
