Friday, 20 May 2011
Photoshop, Photoshop, Photoshop!
With my degree coming to a close (hand in is next Friday!!!) things have been pretty hectic lately and most of my time has been spent staring at a Photoshop document wondering whether that image should be nudged 1mm to the left or not, whether the text should be a size bigger and whether the background is the right side of grey...decisions, decisions. All those hours, however, have been worth it and BLANKexpression is so close to completion now. The Big Bang Issue should be online within the next 7 days so keep your eyes peeled!
Thursday, 5 May 2011
The wanderer returns...
Two months have gone by with no word...how time flies. In the last two months I have sipped cervezas in Barcelona, boogied to ska in Clapham and in between worked my little socks off (though not the whole time ;))
My trip to Barcelona was brief but beautiful. I flew over - £25 with Ryanair I'll have you know - with my sister for a short two night stay. We stumbled late one Thursday night into the Kabul Hostel right in the centre of Barcelona... I had stayed there twice previously and always had so much fun. It's a lively place with a bar, large dorms, free breakfast and a doorway that leads practically onto La Ramblas...where more could a 22year old want....cheap beer? They have that too! And while we did treat ourselves to a couple of beverages during our stay - in fact we nearly missed our flight out there enjoying our airport Coronas far too much - we were really there for work. And work we did. We had one full day there and we spent it up at Parc Guell, the gorgeous park created by Antoni Gaudi. We snapped at our cameras all day and came away with some lovely images - that shall be seen in BLANK when it goes online...more on that later. We saw a brilliant band performing in the seated area too. I forget their name but I'll find the cd and post it on here when I do. It was a lovely day though and we basked in the warm weather and beautiful surroundings. The next day, for my sister's uni project, we 'got lost' We had a set of directions we had written that we had no idea of where they would take us and we loved roaming around the streets simply 'getting lost'. A wonderful couple of days...go to Barcelona!!!
The other 'main event' I must tell you about from the last couple of months was the London International Ska Festival that was held in London at the end of April. I only managed to make it to the Saturday and Sunday - missing out on what sounded like brilliant nights on the Thursday and Friday - but had a really great time. I went along with my dad and we saw some wonderful music played by a range of bands, all fitting under the title of 'ska' but all with their own differnt sounds. There were some really great performances and as someone who really just enjoys ska music from a distance is was so brilliant to be there amongst real ska fans and to feel the atmosphere, which was lively and friendly and excited. There was a realy moment when Rico Rodriguez joined The Trojans on stage and sang a gorgeous rendition of 'Wonderful World' A moment I will never forget...particularly as it was followed by Lynval Golding (of The Specials) on the mic doing 'A Message To You Rudy'. We had two really enjoyable evenings and if the festival takes place again next year - which I so hope it does - I urge you to go along. Even if you know little about ska music, as I do, you are bound to fall in love with the music when you see, hear and feel the effect of it live.
The rest of my time has mainly been spent working on getting BLANK together...a mammoth task that seems to be taking knocks left, right and centre. I am still working on getting the website together but as SOON as I have it up and running you'll be the first to know!
Bye for now!
My trip to Barcelona was brief but beautiful. I flew over - £25 with Ryanair I'll have you know - with my sister for a short two night stay. We stumbled late one Thursday night into the Kabul Hostel right in the centre of Barcelona... I had stayed there twice previously and always had so much fun. It's a lively place with a bar, large dorms, free breakfast and a doorway that leads practically onto La Ramblas...where more could a 22year old want....cheap beer? They have that too! And while we did treat ourselves to a couple of beverages during our stay - in fact we nearly missed our flight out there enjoying our airport Coronas far too much - we were really there for work. And work we did. We had one full day there and we spent it up at Parc Guell, the gorgeous park created by Antoni Gaudi. We snapped at our cameras all day and came away with some lovely images - that shall be seen in BLANK when it goes online...more on that later. We saw a brilliant band performing in the seated area too. I forget their name but I'll find the cd and post it on here when I do. It was a lovely day though and we basked in the warm weather and beautiful surroundings. The next day, for my sister's uni project, we 'got lost' We had a set of directions we had written that we had no idea of where they would take us and we loved roaming around the streets simply 'getting lost'. A wonderful couple of days...go to Barcelona!!!
The other 'main event' I must tell you about from the last couple of months was the London International Ska Festival that was held in London at the end of April. I only managed to make it to the Saturday and Sunday - missing out on what sounded like brilliant nights on the Thursday and Friday - but had a really great time. I went along with my dad and we saw some wonderful music played by a range of bands, all fitting under the title of 'ska' but all with their own differnt sounds. There were some really great performances and as someone who really just enjoys ska music from a distance is was so brilliant to be there amongst real ska fans and to feel the atmosphere, which was lively and friendly and excited. There was a realy moment when Rico Rodriguez joined The Trojans on stage and sang a gorgeous rendition of 'Wonderful World' A moment I will never forget...particularly as it was followed by Lynval Golding (of The Specials) on the mic doing 'A Message To You Rudy'. We had two really enjoyable evenings and if the festival takes place again next year - which I so hope it does - I urge you to go along. Even if you know little about ska music, as I do, you are bound to fall in love with the music when you see, hear and feel the effect of it live.
The rest of my time has mainly been spent working on getting BLANK together...a mammoth task that seems to be taking knocks left, right and centre. I am still working on getting the website together but as SOON as I have it up and running you'll be the first to know!
Bye for now!
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