or summin'

i feel all growed up. today me, charlie, shaun and wai-sum-lum-bum-cum-dum-yum-yum went to look at a house for next year. a modest little terrace house, just off of city way took the lime light when we all imagined our indebted selves going about our studenty ways inside it. a few vital questions need to be asked before we seal the deal like the cost of bills and the all important "can we have a cat?", but i think we're all pretty happy with it. there's a massive feud between charlie and wais over who gets the biggest room. the decision came through the flipping of a coin, which wai-sum lost, claiming that the method of deciding was unfair and that doing "a penalty shoot out or summin" would be a much better determination of who was more worthy of the extra space. being mature and of little income, i've decided to go for the smallest room, meaning i pay less rent and charlie is now in my taxi service debt for the year as his room is consequently twice the size of mine.

in other news, summer is on its way and i can't bloody wait. the plan: runaway as many times as possible, take countless reels of poundland film, say YES more, work work work, meet as many new and interesting people as possible and travel back to 2005 and see blink 182 reform. yes mark. yes tom. yes travis. take off your pants and jacket has been on repeat for 5 days running.

i. am. under, six. teen. years. o' age, fool

today was the longest day in the history of photographerkind. not only did i wake up with 4 snakebites' worth of a hangover, bridie in my bed and a homeless anthony on my floor, but i had to create and perform an entire presentation that would ultimately end up lasting FIVE HOURS. oh, and when i say five hours, i don't mean that my presentation lasted five hours, i mean the five hours worth of sitting listening to everyone else's aswell. i barely lasted five minutes of talking, let alone five hours.

the irony of it all is that at tap & tin's poundland i probably generated more work than i did for the entire advertising project. the photo's i took last night were even more experimental than anything i did in the last 4weeks, long exposures on film and all that jazz. even if they didn't come out great i had a laugh with it. i feel all inspired an' ting. jonas (my canon a1 35mm), will be coming out with me every night from now on. end of.

i'll scan in the produce of last night's labours this week and plop them in here soon. they may even make an appearance on facebook if you're lucky ;)

emmie twee

feline a bit bored

i spent saturday evening in with no internet, a cat and a webcam. here's how the evening panned out:









the last one being my favourite... i definately need to go out and get drunk.

emmie twee

winkle pickered

bridie & i are spearheading a new trend. we've decided, impulse is in & inhibitions are out. our own version of the game in jeux d'enfants is now in full swing, the aim being to act impulsively & out dare eachtother.

game?
game.

today involved picking dafoldils, dances with benches, smashing beer bottles in the park and chasing fit winkle pickered men down chatham high street. as well as these events, we've decided to go to manchester for two nights some weekend in april, just on a whim. we also went to the cafe & had egg/bacon & chips & obligitory cup of tea.

emmie twee

d is for dog

i finally got the guts to open the package and get out my new camera. and yes ok fine i did cry a bit when i remembered trent. i wish i was joking. i've decided to call my new camera vincent and we're getting along swimmingly. this is the first picture i took on my vince and i've gotta say i'm pretty happy with it. this picture is of josh's dog Deefa, Deefa Dog. he doesn't get offended by the pun though, he can't hear. and even if he could hear, he's a dog.

emmie twee

someone stole my shoulders

daisy just directed me to the best music myspace ever. the infamous urban jew, whom she is actually acquainted with."urban back" is genius. this man is being serious.

the urban jew

hiatus

this summer, at one point, i plan to be able to travel back in time to look and behave like this:


how am i going to do this? by seeing blink 182 on their comeback tour. that's how. who's coming with me!?

polaroids of last night

a snakebite soaked fiver we stuck to the wall

just before i started causing destruction

oi oi leroy!

andre romelle young

so a few people definately forgot about the D.R.E last night. dre is like a religion. if you forget about dre then you forget your righteousness. dre will always be with you as long as you believe in him and always remember him. there was certainly a few sinners last night. we won't go into detail. you know who you are. utter. prick.

the rest of the night involved a lot of dancing and snakebite and red bull and me getting a bit over excited and smashing every glass in sight on purpose. i also tipped someone's drink over in my eastenders clearing-a-mantle-piece type rage - although it was more just a feeling of liberation as oposed to rage... i bought them a new drink, but forgot who they were and don't remember what i did with the drink after that. my mind was too busy, my memory regions completely filled with dre.

~ the product of my uncovered brutish ways ~

i woke up today with my phone open on a half written message to josh that went a little something like this: "right. how many times have i told ya? you don't impress no one. right, bridie just told me this mental long talk bout kpnyti: talki gprsiat". i think that sums up my state of mind last night, the famous last words being "i'm only going to drink enough to get me merry."

in other news, liam got a cat. i'm jealous. that's the first thing i'm doing when i move in with wais, shaun and charlie. we're going to name it fanny. end of. liam called his cat pan and she weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces. but no cats shall compare to my bailey and florence. here they are having fun in a washing bag:

and here's a picture of bailey that i wish i'd taken...

i'm about to go to uni and scan the pictures of charlie cox and tommy nobbs. i'll post a blog with them when i'm there. until then, don't forget about dre.

emmie twee

the cocktail of last night left me slightly dazed for the rest of the night and most of this morning. after giving you all my dad's now infamous "shocker" recipe, i decided it was pay back and exposed him to a bit of photography/mod culture and made him watch 60s cult classic "blow up" with me. he tried to be interested but two shockers and a belly full of pasta is enough so send any dad asleep so half way through he climbed up the wooden hills to bedfordshire. i don't really blame him.

i thought it was a pretty awesome film but a bit hard to get your head round at times. there was definately some substances involved in the making process, but it was 1966 so 'll let 'em off. caroline thought i'd like it - i dunno what she was trying to imply - but she was right. the photographer in it is supposedly based on david bailey. he's all eccentric and obsessive about getting the photos he wants. if a bit extreme at times, it definately sparked an enthusiasm in me. the cinematography is beautiful. here's some other stills from it. why they're in black & white, i have no idea.


even though we've settled on noi the albino for set build, i might suggest it to the team just as another option like.

anyway, i'm off to do some collaging. until next time.

emmie twee

it's saturday night and i'm back home, having a night in with tv, dvds and my dad's mental cocktails. i've had three sips of a "shocker" and i'm already feeling the effects. i put the word shocker in commas as i've just looked up the recipe online. it goes:

2 shots vodka
1 shot aftershock
1 can red bull

that's definately not what's in my glass. it goes something more like:

1 shot quantro
1 shot grenadin
1 shot tequila
1/2 pint cider
and a squeeze of lemon.

my dad's idea of a shot is the equivalent of about 5. right, i'm even more smashed now since i started writing this, i've not even drunk half of it yet. my dad just asked if i want a top up. i'm gunna pass.

last night's london adventure was a laugh, if not slightly tamer than we'd imagined. being used to spending no more than 6quid on a chatham student night out, a £10.40 round of drinks came as a bit of a shocker (and not in the sense of my dad's cocktails either). still, i got suitably drunk and pointed at a woman stood next to me unnoticed for at least half an hour.

after a sleep that was repeatedly interupted by a siamese throwback cat on my face, i got myself up early to take more barnado's kids pictures. this time it was my eleven year old geezer cousin and his mate, charlie cox and tommy nobbs. even down to their names, they're proper little geezers. hopefully the pictures will follow suit.

oh and as a little request, anyone know the name of the photographer who did black & white documentary photography of skinheads in the 80s? there's this one picture of two skinhead kids, a boy and a girl, on an estate. its a brilliant picture. the bloke's name is really british 'n' all, like dave or steve or something. anyone know who it is? or got any more clues as to who it is? it's been bugging me and caroline since thursday afternoon.

emmie twee

six quid is all it takes

today i feel like this.

emmie twee

leg swapping

what an odd day. the plan:

go to the laundrette
go to town to get toothpaste, tea bags and bridie's birthday present
meet the set build team at 1.30 to take our group shot and start up the blog
get the medium format from stores for shoot with charlie
go to a tutorial
get the train back to dartford to take pictures tomorrow of charlie

simple. laundrette - accomplished.

went to go to town. bridie rings.
"em what you doing?"
"i'm going down chatham."
"can i come?"
"no."
"why not?"
"you just can't."
"why?! who are you with!?"
"no one?"
"no you are. who are you with?"
"NO. ONE."
"well why can't i come? WHO ARE YOU WITH???"
"I'M NOT WITH ANYONE BRIDIE."
"well why can't i come then!?"
"you just CAN'T, OK!?"
"EMMIE. I'M COMING. i need to get stuff anyway so i'll see you down there."
"BRIDIE. what day is it tomorrow?????"
"my birthday...?"
"yeah so why do you think you can't come with me?!?!?!?"
"oh.... well i'll meet you and get it after."

i didn't get it after. we spent too much time in greggs and playing the mullet game. i also got so hysterical about the idea of running into a fish & chip shop and turning over all the tables in an eastenders type rage that we ran out of time, ofcourse. my stomach hurt so "hassleblad"* by the end of it and i actually cried with laughter, not done that in a while.

i went to uni at 1.30 and wai-sum and james didn't meet us until 2.30 cos they couldn't be bothered to get out of bed. (by the way the blog IS up and running now. you can follow our progress at http://www.setbuild.ucreative.ac.uk/09/wordpress/?p=46 ). polaroid leg swapping is fun.

after the leg swapping was done, we set out to find our tutorial and stumbled across shelley's diesel photoshoot. it involved jak, leroy, girls in their underwear, a home casino set, alcohol and crisps. i didn't feel naked enough for the porn party so made a swift exit with a hyper leroy clinging to my back as i left.

the essay tutorial was actually very productive indeed. was able to choose a topic very dear to my heart - how the fashion photography of the 60's reflects its social youth era or visa versa. it needs rewording obviously, but that's the jist of it. gunna be focusing on good ol' mr david bailey and terence donovan for the fashion side of things then compare them to the documentary work of roger mayne, working around the same time.

YES DAVE.

YES TEL.



YES ROGER.

this essay had sparked ideas for my series an' sequence project 'n' all. had a little discussion about that, going to look at the way the 60's mod culture always revives itself. gunna start documenting the scene, got this idea in my head of maybe snapping everyone in a fred perry polo with the exact same framing. not sure if the ideas got enough kick to it but i feel like i've gotta get it out, see what happens with it. i'll start that within the next couple of weeks i guess so again, watch this space.

right, i'm gunna go jump in the shower now. i'm off to the mod rival hot spot in rochester, casino rooms. i plan to spend no more than a fiver.

emmie twee

*hassleblad: i was telling bridie how much people spoke about hassleblad cameras at uni and how much i hate them that the word is now a substitute for the word "bad".

condrahendraddle

yes this is third post of the day, and what? i think the novelty of having my own blog is taking over but i'm going to review the fruits of my labour for today. a whole day involving two rather crucial tutorials probably shouldn't go unblogged so you can shut right up.

firstly, the advertising project - my one being barnados. the length of the tutorial was something to be desired but that seems to go for any tutorial these days. none the less it was a pretty enlightening ol' session. the contact sheets went down well. the one's of the girls were awesome. here's the favourite, let me know what you think:

the ones of olivia and joe went down pretty alright too, joe's face in this one being described as "absolutely brilliant" so well done joe. there's some other less successful ones, i might post them in a seperate blog a bit later. it just took me the best part of an hour to sort out the placement of them two and i don't think i have the patience to battle with other images right now.

second tutorial was about the infamous set build project. its barely two weeks in and i'm already fed up of hearing about it. don't get me wrong, i'm looking forward to it and rather excited about making it. i know it'll be awesome and a right laugh but there's such a nerdiness surrounding it. the people at uni get, what i can only describe as, "condrahendraddle"* about it. there are bigger problems in the world. it's just like working at schuh. at the end of the day i have to always remind myself: it's just a project/shoes. people get so serious about things like that. just have a laugh for gawd's sake. c

coincidentally there is a seperate blog for our set build project - i shant be quoting any of what i just said in there but it should be pretty sweet. we'll be starting that officially tomorrow, posting an obligatory "group shot", the film we've chosen and the scenes we're thinking of doing. as soon as its started i'll make a little link on here. got a little twist on our group shot as well so watch this space. well, you should watch that space but that space doesn't exist yet so watch this space whilst you wait for that space to appear.

i'm actually gunna go and have a life now. no more blogs today. even if it's really really important i'll do it in the morning because more than 3 blogs in one day is both sad and unnecessary and probably pretty boring to read.

emmie twee

*condrahendraddle: a word my mum made up to describe being really technical and lar-di-dar about stuff. like for example "are you going to use an FP Strato doo-lar 400 to do that with or a MK Blurgo 2.5 Recto? because you know with the Strat you'll get a lot of fluctinaught on your membro." show offs basically.

end of.

this is my nanny mavis and auntie barbara...

i'm really jealous i didn't take this photo. end of.

emmie twee

wankers

the bastards that burgled me have no idea what havoc they've caused. not only do i not feel safe in my own home anymore, but they've also caused my mum to nearly swear in a post office.

for the record, i have a habit of naming my cameras. trent was my late camera what got stolen. we had a good month together but sadly he abruptly left me the day those wankers broke in. so there's been a right kafuffle with sorting out insurance and what have you but finally we were making progress. trent's next in line had been sent but for some unknown reason it has ended up at the post office: the post office my family have fallen out with countless times. here's my mum's account of going to collect my new baby.

"i right made myself late today to go to the fucking post office in fucking marseans to get the camera, only to be told "oh i wont be able to serve you for A COUPLE OF HOURS as we being audited!" boy i was mad, i said "what you cant just give me my parcel?"......... "computer says no" i replied "OH FOR GOD SAKE!!!!!" really fucking loud, just as well i didnt throw any other curses in there. wankers. i hate that shop"

i love my mum.

emmie twee

say what?

blog virginity officially stolen.

so everyone's blogging. i thought how hard could it be? very, is the answer. i've come to realise it's clearly a lot harder than i first thought. i just sat staring at this blank screen for at least 15minutes whilst the vinyl player to my right asked me where i got the blank expression on my face. funny.

but as a foundation i'm going to say this: i do not claim to be the best speller in the world, nor do i claim to be at all eloquent. this little corner of the internet is going to contain any ramblings i that take me fancy and maybe i'll chuck in a bit of photography and musical taste for good measure.

this week i brought my deck back from sunny dirtford to halls and high jacked some of my mum's record collection. my mum has never conducted herself how a mum "should" conduct herself but it's never done me any harm. if anything she's provided me with a skill for remembering lyrics, even to songs i've never heard. she regularly breaks out into reggae toasts, known officially in my house as "mum's random reggae". i don't like the word random, but it fits well in this context so i'll allow it. i decided that at the age of 20 it was probably time to listen to the actual songs as opposed to my mum's regurgitated versions. raking through the records, i found a few gems. my favourite being "the wonderful world of reggae" which - i might add - does exactly what it says on the tin. it ends on a self proclaimed "jamaican version of the good times sound" called "rockers choice" by xanadu & sweet lady. sounds a lot like blondie's rapture and there are a few cheeky SAY WHAT!?'s thrown in , for good measure.

SAY WHAT!? seems to be the phrase of the week. after listening to rockers choice i went to sleep only to wake up at 2 in the morning having already unconsciously answered my phone to a prank call. the voice was a put on jamaican accent. i suspect it was lee scratch perry himself. it was certainly very convincing. coincidentally enough there were a few SAY WHAT!?'s thrown in to the conversation as well, for good measure.

STOP SAYING FOR GOOD MEASURE.



emmie twee