End of the Gorky's

Hmmmmm.......a lot of bands come and go and it does not really matter because that's just the way it is, but I am a little sad at the news of the Welsh band - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci split.
The where a crazy, weird group and there originality will be missed - but all good things must come to a end and they have had a great run of album and single releases since 1992 - so I can understand why now might be the right time - if you keep going you run the risk of burning out and growing old.
luckily I manage to see them a few years back - I think it was 2003, in Wales and the gig was great - it was at one of these day festivals - and it was not crowded ( like many are today) so I got a really good spot at the front of the stage on this particular summery day.

Just discovered 2 reviews I wrote for The Skinny - a local lifestyle, entertainment mag can be seen on there online zine page - the one is about my Local internet cafe that I use quite often and the other about a really cute little cafe I went to, if you have time check em out at
www.skinnymag.co.uk/content/view/594/
www.skinnymag.co.uk/content/view/630/

I am also featured in a Judo Book about to be released and can be bought from Amazon - for those who don't know me as well as others In my past I did A LOT of Judo anyway you can read more info about this book at
http://judobook.com/blackbeltjudo.html

Climates and Reggae

Well it's Monday again hmmmmm.............
I'm not really going to talk about what I did this weekend because it seems rather insignificant to what else has been going on.

First of all just want to say that I was very sad to hear about the death of Reggae Legend - Desmond Decker at the age of 64, suffering a heart Attack on Thursday morning.
He was responsible for hits such as The Israelites, Honour your father and I Intensified, which he played with his band The Aces. He toured up until his death and had planned to play at some summer festivals in the Uk this year. So big up to Desmond who is probably rocking up his rude boy style Jamaican music up in heaven.


Another things is how terrible the earthquake in Indo? Why do these things have to happen to communities that struggle to cope with such disasters? At the end of the day mother nature rules over everything - no one can compete with her wrath.
Have you seen that Sir David Attenborough has spoken out about his concern on global warming - it's happening NOW not tomorrow and we all need to start thinking of ways to help slow this down. So why when everyone knows this is happening is Tony Blair now supporting the building of more Nuclear Plants - why are we not looking at Alternatives like Wind Power, Solar Panels and maybe even harness the power of water?? It's like they are only interested in living today and not about the future........................hmmmmm

I know that my mother is really big on recycling and I think as soon as I get settled in Falmouth I am going to get a composter - they are cheap and compost things like tea and coffee, eggs shells, shredded paper etc....and make your bins a whole lot lighter.

The one thing I did do this weekend was make a great vegetable curry - yummeee, it's so simple and healthy - just chuck some red onions in a pot fry em for a little add some curry powder, tumeric and cumin, then add some chopped green peppers, carrots, green beans, peas, kidney beans and some chopped tomatoes (tinned), I boilded some nice brown basmasti to go with and bingo some yumme supper.

Anyway that's me for now...........

Everything at College is heating up, everyone is rushing around trying to get there work in on time, makes me thing about the isolation of good ol' St Helena - always in my heart dear fairyland

Well this weekend was all pinned on the hope of good weather, but alas mother nature did not agree. It was cold, damp and really just a bit boring.
It was one of those non-starter weekends, when everything seems to take a long time and nothing goes smoothly, even if your at the bus stop really early , the bus will have left without you or hits road works and makes you feel like you might aswell have walked, but looking out you see rain and take back the last comment.
Anyway when there is rain there are movies!!! So on Saturday I did some tidying and milling around the flat then went to watch the newly released French movie called "strayed" set in the 1940's in France at the end of WW2, it's about a mother and her 2 children who flee Paris, have there car burnt out by a bomb on the way, go into the forest and are met up by a young boy of 17, they find a boarded up isolated house and it goes from there........cannot remmember what I did after that.....I'm getting forgetful in my old age.
On Sunday though it was still cloudy but not raining yet. I took put in the 5 mile Walk for Skin, around through Holyrood Park - which is really beautiful and I plan to walk that route again soon, it was really nice to get out into the fresh air, and play dodge the swan around the lake.
After that I must have walked another 8 miles around the city as the busses are few on Sundays, looking for nerd glasses for my photo shoot on Wednesday.
Anyway, my flatmate got a rare day off from work so we decided to see (another) French Movie called Russian Dolls, which is a dark slight romantic realistic comedy, which was cool, about a French writer and his friends around the world, dreaming, expectations of perfection and a wedding in St Petersburg.
Anyway........that's about it really, I know I must have done other things but probably not worth mentioning.....

I love music but hate the radio

Sometimes I real feel like there is not hope for the music industry.
All the main radios are funded by various record companies and are therefore bound to promote that labels "next big thing" despite if they are musically gifted or not, I hate it, it's all so disposable and it just keeps getting worst!
At work we have Virgin Radio on and it plays the same things every night, I feel sorry for the odd good song because they destroy by simply repeating it over and over again until you hate it. Virgin is hosting different festivals around the UK this summer and are compelled to promote the bands playing at these festivals - it's all a viscous circle of money money money. When I do buy records I often don't look at who the band or person is that is making the track I simply try to have a clear perspective and have no pre-conceived ideas - if I like the song I like the song despite who sings it. The one great thing about music is discovering it....not having it forced down your throat. Also what has happened to the honest critics??? Do they still exists?? Everyone is hyping everyone else - no one writes bad reviews anymore - not like the Theatre or Film critics who aren't afraid to slate anyone in the fear they may offend or sever connections for free tickets!!! We need bad reviews!!!! But bad reviews hardly ever get printed!!! Why? Because most of the big magazines are funded by ad's from mega record labels and thus the circle repeats itself again!!
Anyway that's my rant for the weekend out of the way.

Here are some random photo's from 2 weeks ago....sorry for the dust on the pics but I have scanned these in from negatives in a rush so the quality is quite poor. But it's Hamish the scottish Coo, Me and the Loch, my "model" brother and the view over Edinburgh.
Anyway things have been quite busy as my due date for all my work is 2 weeks from now, I was in the studio on wednesday shooting portraits and then yesterday (Thursday) I was at the dreaded Dentist, having a bridge put in so now I have lovely straight teeth - yeehaa, so I guess the pain of the injection was worth it!!! Anyway Big Up to my brother as he is 25yrs old to the day - so HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYN!!!!!!
Also I am doing my walk for skin cancer this weekend so if any of you nice people want to help please go to www.justgiving.com/lauraswalkforagoodcause
Anyway everyone have a great weekend!!!!! Hope the weather clears up here though.

"Ice Blink" is a term referring to a white glare that appears on the underside of low clouds in sub-zero sea conditions, indicating the presence of ice beyond the range of vision, and warning ships to be on guard. Just a little interesting fact. Today has been spent all in the darkroom, I am doing a documentary project of Judo - from the beginning of class through the warm up, peak of session, warm down, finish etc.....just printing the pics at the moment.

So another weekend gone and never to return.
But I always try and do something worth while on the weekends or just relax.
Saturday was a beautiful day in terms of sun and clear blue sky although it had a slight chill in the air. I went to Princess St Gardens and lay on the slopes trying to get a tan and read some of my book - "Good Vibrations", it's a travel book about a British Couple who travel across the USA on 2 hogs (Harleys) and it's just about their travels and the people they meet along the way. The great thing about Edinburgh is it's setting, beautiful buildings and creative people. They have some great Art galleries and this weekend I went to 4 of them - The City Art Centre, The Fruitmarket Gallery, The National Scottish Gallery and Stills.
There where some great exhibitions but the ones that really stood out where Fred Sandback's exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery, he was born in New York and his work consists mainly of spacially aware sculptures made out of different colour thread, sounds weird but it's really good, you can see some of his work and others at http://www.fruitmarket.co.uk/archive_Sandback.html
the other exhibition that stood out was Ice Blink by Simon Faithfull at the Stills gallery. It combined graphics, video, digital and traditional photography and it is basically about his trip to the Antarctic, I think the reason why I really like this project besides the beautiful visual appeal, is because he flew to Ascension Island first an island I myself have been too, then he flew to The Falklands - a place some of my friends have been to, then he took a boat to Antarctic - sa place I would like to go to. Anyway besides trying to inspire myself with an array of art in the galleries there was also the Painted Cows for charity out on the streets, all colorful and eye catching. Sunday consisted of walking around town and cow spotting. My Flat mate and I rented a Sunday night movie call "Factotum" an offbeat dark humor of a movie about a writer who goes through hundreds of low paid jobs while writing stories no one wants to publish.
Anyway I am in a huge rush and have to go to catch my bus so cheers for now.

Pot Noodle ad

Okay this is just a quick post but has anyone seen that new Pot Noodle advert - with the welsh miners going down into a pot noodle mine to dig out pot noodle. I know that this Ad is meant to be funny but I just get the feeling that they are taking the mick out of Welsh people and their mining heritage. Normally I am very laid back and see the funny side of it but I find this ad annoying and derogatory to Welsh People. Just thought I'd put that out there.

This is just a short note - forgot to say that I am doing the Walk for Skin next week on the 21st, a 5 mile walk for skin cancer so if any of you nice people want to help and contribute towards my fundraising efforts - even 10p! You can go to
www.justgiving.com/lauraswalkforagoodcause

Also for anyone who does not know I have been accepted to Falmouth University of Arts in Cornwall which I am super happy about and will be leaving this could city on the 27th June to escape to the slightly warmer South of England - yeehaa.

anyway below are just two random pics of happings around Edinburgh from the last 2 weeks

So my brother went back home yesterday........mmmmm.
It was really nice having him around.
We did quite alot of cool stuff......Here's the run down of last week.
Last Saturday (6th May) we went up to Loch Ness for the day - yeehaa, escape Edinburgh. On the way up we stopped off at a wool Mill to see the Scottish Coo ( a big highland cow) then in the mountainous Glencoe for 20mintue after that it was up to see wee little nessy. We got off in Fort Augustus which is the southern tip of the Loch, it's was a beautiful day and we went to the shore of the loch to have a stone skimming competition which my brother won hands down as I cannot skim a stone to save my life. We looked across the lock in hope of a Nessy spotting but alas we did not see the mighty beast.
We walked up into the town and sat in the sun and at our lunch and had a drink, unfortunately there is a thing called time and it was calling so we had to head back to the city. But on the way back we stopped off in Pilochry and did some Whiskey tasting - as one should always do being in Scotland and all then back to the bustling city - all in all a good day. Pics will be up shortly.

Well Saturday was tiring but I Sunday is still a day I don't have to work or study so I hate wasting it so we decided to walk up Salisbury Craig, it's next to Arthurs seat and you have a view of the whole of the city from up there - so we heading off late morning and took a mellow stroll up. I really enjoy the outdoors - especially after a week of being in the darkroom. Then to finish the weekend we went to the Filmhouse (arthouse cinema) and watched a re-run of the French/Polish film The Double Life of Veronique - a quirky European film made in 1991.

Wow then back to hectic college,work,college,work etc.... Although on Tuesday evening I took off work to take some photo's of the local Judo club for one of my projects, after which we had a quick farewell drink at this cool little bar called Mezz - my flatmate works there.
But now I am knackerd and I need to work real hard as my due date for all my work is Fri 2nd June.

Normally people make resolutions around New Years. I prefer to set my around the start of summer.......so this summer I have lots of things planned - travels,music, camping, photo's etc...... because life is too short not too.

And it has all started off very well.

My Brother came up to Edinburgh to help me on one of my photography projects and it's been great having him around, we have not spent that much time together in years and even though I have a very hectic week we have had action packed weekends.

Starting on 29th April we chilled in the meadows, on a beautiful day watching some bands at the May Day festival, then went for lunch at The Forest - a vegan deli, which my brother described as a food commune which is not at all the case, but anyway. I like really like the Forest Cafe because it sells fresh food and always has something going on, it had some political documentary playing when we where there. They also have a Darkroom which I use sometime and a gallery space for local artists.
On the Sunday my brother and I, along with my flat mate Rudi decided to make the most of the weather and went to the local shop stocked up on some french bread and hummus among other nibbles and headed to the beach (Portobello) which is about a 25minute walk from where I live - I didn't even realise it was that close. We lay in the sun and drank some beer and listen to the local church who had gathered near the beach singing hymns.
That night was the night of craziness in Edinburgh - Beltane Fire Festival, held on Carlton Hill....It's a festival to bring on Summer. My brother and I headed up there at about 9pm, it was packed - they sold out of 15000 tickets!!!!! Lots of fire, dancing, people dressed up in Pagan clothing and big fire dragons and all that crazy stuff.
All in all a very good weekend!!!