Id, 1965 – 2009.
I took this blurry pic (ripped off Jackie’s facebook album) in the backyard of my first ever share-house, back in 1985. Walker Avenue, Teneriffe, Brisbane. I lived there with my best friends Jackie and Dwayne (they were a couple at that time – that’s Dwayne on the left) and various others who passed through…..
The cool cat in the black beret with the bongo’s and the fag hanging out out the corner of his mouth died last week.
His name was Id, and he and I and all our friends went to Griffith Uni together, back in the day when it was a hotbed of all things alternative and political. That place and those times set us all on the very distinctive paths were are all on now. We were all crazy about music, and spent all our free time going to see gigs, or – if you were musically inclined, playing in bands. Id was one of the founding members of the late, great Dementia 13 (myspace page) – go take a listen to hacksaw, admire Alex’s almighty scream. Id was also in a zillion other musical projects, both here and in London when he, Jackie, Russell, Alex and Stewart lived there for a few years.
Id came out to us all a few years after this, and became the editor of Queenslands only gay and lesbian magazine, PRIDE back in 2001. He always astonishingly good with words. And he also has a great talent for photography. His Flickr page is full of great photography – some of them covers for the mag.
I haven’t seen him that much over the past 10 – 15 years, but he came along to my 40th birthday party in Australia last year, and set up a little studio in my uncle’s living room to take real portraits of people. Here is that facebook gallery (not sure if you’ll be able to see these if you aren’t his “friend”).
Last week he collapsed and died at home, it was either a heart attack or a stroke, he was only 43. He was such a lovely man, a hugely creative force and a good friend. His funeral is this Wednesday, at the Mt Gravatt Crematorium. The same day that Neil Young plays Brisbane. Some of his friends are, of course, giving up their Neil Young tickets as they’d rather be at the wake. It is going to be an enormous event, no doubt oozing with debauchery as Id would have wanted it. I’ll be there in spirit.
Id, I’ll miss you dear boy.
Technorati Tags: friends, Life & death
Jane and Daisuke’s wedding.
In editing Jane and Daisuke’s wedding photo’s, I went a bit nuts with textures. I really like the timeless results. What do you think?
See a few more over at my photography blog.
Or many many more over at my smugmug page.
I love doing wedding photography. This was my 4th wedding, and with each one, they get easier and my confidence grows. And I’m delighted to say that my clients have all been really happy with the photo’s I’ve given them. So rewarding, so satisfying.
Technorati Tags: Japan, Photography shoots, weddings
It’s 35 degrees and I just ate a frozen mango over the kitchen sink.
28/365: August 2. Jon and I spent a sunny Saturday working on Tiger Music/Biz NItes stuff at the Juice Office in Shibuya.
29/365: August 3. My old friend Michelle was in town from Melbourne for a few days. She comes every year to attend the Matsumoto Suzuki Violin Summer Session. I’ve been out of Japan during August for the past couple of years so this was the first time we’ve hung out since 2005. Last time she came, she brought her violin down to the park and played wild gypsy songs at midnight for Kat, Darin, Tyler and me as we drank beer and let our souls soar as it should when listening to live wild gypsy songs in a park at midnight.
30/365: Aug 4. My turtle Gertrude has had something of a growth spurt and her tank is too small for her now. I put her in the bathtub as a special treat – she loved it.
31/365: Aug 5. Actually, this is another cheat shot. I took this on the morning of Aug 6. On Aug 5th, we hosted Music Biz – a huge event in Roppongi organised in collaboration with the UK Embassy. No chance to even scratch my nose let alone pull my camera out. I woke up the next morning, exhausted and feeling battered, bruised, uptight and late for my first English lesson of the day, and snapped this pic before slowly pouring myself out of bed and into the shower.
32/265: Aug 6. My room mate, Greg the Canadian geneticist micro-biologist brought some pictures of his own home from work. He thinks they are way cooler than mine. I think he’s right. He did explain what these were but not being particularly sound of mind at the time, I can’t remember…. I know they were taken using a massively powerful microscope and that they are little bits of bacteria that have been soaked in formaldahyde and that the spirally ones are completely mutated from the experiments he’s been doing on them in the name of alternative fuel options. Did that make me sound intelligent? I hope so.
33/365: Aug 7. As part of a concerted mental health push, I spent the day chilling round the local ‘hood in Kichijoji with Kat and Jake – lunching, drinking coffee, shopping and hanging out in the park. Jake is so damn cute. Look at that smile wouldya. ADORABLE! Also caught up with Tyler and Mihoko who just got back from the States where they had their 2nd wedding party, complete with yodelling cowboys. Damn, wish I had gone to that one.
I’m off to Tochigi tomorrow to go hiking for a few days with Chris. Cannot wait to hit the mountains and escape this goddamn city. Tonight, Deanne is organising something for world hoop day in Yoyogi, gonna go along and help her raise some money and be somewhere where I have no responsibilities whatsoever. And probably drink a beer or 3 with Christian and Yuiko who are also coming along. Yay.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day, Japan, Photography, Tokyo
The past week in pics…
23/365: July 28. Sandi at a little Thai restaurant in Centre Gai, Shibuya. She is clutching the cracked pepper she pulled from her kitchen to give me. On this day, she and the family officially moved out of their apartment of the past 2 years, and into the landmark Tower Hotel for their last 3 days in japan. After dinner, we moseyed on down to the 300 yen bar and met with Dr Dave, Frederik (moving to Singapore to live the same day as Sandi & Jeff leave) and Nordine (who had tried to straight perm his hair that day with disastrous consequences and was forced to wear a black kit cap, turning him into a dodgy stevedore) and pretended we were in a seedy underground Parisienne basement bar rather than a seedy Tokyo bar, as the Frenchmen at our table bantered in French, English and Japanese. Ah, so multicultural. Oooh la la.
24/365: July 29. Let’s play a guessing game. What is this a photo of?
25/365: July 30. I was left by myself on the platform at Yokohama to head far far north after the final final final last night sayonara dinner for Sandi, Jeff, Max and Dexter in Yokohama . The rest of the crew headed south. This was good-bye. Actually, took a ton of hilarious pictures this night and will be sharing them with you all some time soon… A lovely night. And now they are gone. Sandi made us promise that we will come visit them in Seattle one day. I’d like to honour that promise. I’ve met some great Seattlers since living in Tokyo.
26/365: July 31. The next event for Tiger Music is next Tuesday and things are getting pretty frantic. I had an afternoon meeting with the management at Tableaux lounge for the event after next (August 18: Biz Nite). They are such awesome people, such a pleasure to deal with after the dubious quality of the management at the other venue we are forced to use next Tuesday. Anyway, the meeting went well and the relationship there is set in booking stone for the coming year, which is a seriously great thing. I love this job. And I love this room. I snuck this picture at Ryota-san was making me a coffee. Gorgeous, isn’t it!
27/365: August 1. Friday night in the big city. At home, having a quiet night. This is my special things shrine. When I need downtime, I put on some music, turn on the faerie lights, light some candles and incense and sit on my futon in front of this and try to shut off my brain chatter and be still and recharge. It’s hard. Sometimes I chat to Mum and Dad. Sometimes they answer. But mostly they stay quiet. As they should, I guess.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day, friends, Japan, Photography, Tokyo
20/365: July 25 2008
Friday night. Shibuya. 300 yen bar.
Yet another stupid drunk shot of me and Christian. I think I must have close to 50 of these now. Our semi-regular piss ups are such a joy to me. This night we had some lively company who kept the beers coming at a steady pace but their photos are a little trashy so I shan’t share them here.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day
6/365: July 11 2008
Actually, I cheated on this one – I actually took this on July 12th because I worked all day at Tiger and by the time I got home my newly arrived houseguests had collapsed with exhaustion after their flight from NY. I had planned to take my “photo a day” photo of them that night but well.. they were sleeping so I had no choice but to wait till the next morning, at brekky.
Who are they? Champion illustrators (and my old dear friend) Andrea Innocent and (her buddy) Beck Wheeler, on their way back from ICON5, the New York Illustration Conference. They are staying here for a week or so before heading back to Melbourne.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day
Stepping back into the ring.
Todays pics were all taken on Sunday, when Sandi, Jeff, M & D & I hit the Muay Thai championships at Differ Ariake, out at Odaiba. So much fun! (zillions more pics to come) Thanks for the tickets, Chisa!
I remember at the beginning of the year writing about my dissatisfaction with life in Japan and how I had decided to try to plug into the foreign community scene some more, to try to get more things happening in both my freelance photography and personal worlds.
In places like Shibuya or Harajuku, I would walk past groups of interesting looking people (Japanese and foreign alike) all hunched over a pile of papers or laptops, excitedly discussing ideas, and it would make me feel so disconnected from the rattle and buzz of this cities’ frenetic underbelly of creative industries. Back in Brisbane, that world was my life: making things happen – events, festivals and festival stages, tours, media PR, planting seeds of opportunity, etc etc etc. I realised just how fulfilled that kind of work used to make me feel. I certainly needed a break from the burn out of those last few tours, but I think 5.5 years was perhaps a tad excessive.
Anyway, earlier this year I hauled my arse out from under the radar, and started going to events and parties – often to photograph them (using my existing network of friends and their contacts), and started meeting new people. In that one simple choice, “getting out there”, I managed to plug myself back into a vibrant active community of stupendously magnificent creative people who are all about the same thing: getting things done and making things happen. The opportunities being presented to me are so exciting that lately some nights I can’t actually get to sleep. I feel utterly alive. Of course, I am also hopelessly weather affected and now that summer is here, the time is right for dancing in the streets.
But this post was never meant to be an ode to how I was lost (erm on holiday) and now I am found. Far from it. It’s to talk up the first of the events I have helped co-ordinate with Tiger Music. And to say to those of you who read this blog and need to meet some people and get things moving in their lives, to please revise the notion that networking is a dirty word. Networking is your friend. Networking plants seeds of potential everywhere because you never know how each person is going to pop back into your life with a proposal or suggestion or introduction that could change your professional and personal life. Step into the ring…. (do you like the way my story kinda oh-so-cleverly segues into the pics…?) But I’m going to do that in a separate post now….
I wonder how it’s all gonna go?
Technorati Tags: BiZ NITE, Daikanyama, friends, inspiration, Japan, parties, Tiger Music, Tokyo
I built a home for you, for me.
Kawaguchiko yabusame. Taken back in April, when I did the anniversary pics with Sigsy & Kei. I’m a Sagittarius and am quite drawn to horseback archery. Magnificent stuff. Especially out there at Kawaguchiko, without all the stupid crowds of Tokyo. It’s my 3rd time at this festival. I doubt I’ll ever tire of it.
I used Blurb to make a book for Christian’s 30th birthday. Yuiko and I compiled messages and photos from his rather large circle of friends and family bothe here and in Australia, and edited them into this big, beautiful book. It was all a surprise, and I gave it to him at Araku (Yui-chan had to work till 3 am so couldn’t be there!), the night before he flew back to Brisbane to surprise his friends and family for his birthday. Ha, surprises all round. The folks back home had no idea what the book would actually look like, and they were all so impressed that they’ve ordered copies of their own! Blurb is fabulous and I will definitely be using them to get my first photo books out there.
Jeff (Sandi’s hubby) celebrated his 38th (oh, sorry – ni-ju-ROCK-sai) in fine style at Red Shoes, a cool but pricey club in Aoyama. This great band, The Darkside Mirrors played, 2 hot chicks in the band made them quite photogenic. I missed the best band of the night though, so I’m told, coz i went home early as I am wont to do these days. Anyway, Sandi wrote all about it here.
My old teaching colleague, Lisa is getting married in August and asked me to take some engagement pics for them. We spent a gorgeous day out at one of my fave parks, Showa Kinen Koen and took a ton of lovely pic’s. This is my fave but they both screamed hazakashii (how embarrassing!) when they saw it. Too intimate for Japanese tastes, I think.
The 4th Wednesday of every month at the Pink Cow you can find me shooting sexy models and talented sketchers drawing afore-mentioned sexy models at the now-global live burlesque drawing class DrSketchy’s anti art school. Fabulous fun, this month being no exception.
At the end of each night, we gather the remaining sketchers and crew for a group pic. Actually, we need to start taking this group pic earlier in the night as people tend to head home before the end…. This pic is just of the stayers…..
And here is the Dr Sketchy’s crew: this months model, Svetlana, Pawel, Deanne, Rebekka (Bon Voyage!) and the hostess with the funniest and mostest, Lady Elle.
Meant to post this months ago but…. This is Chris, Ian and I just before we parted ways back in March – me for Nagasaki and Tylers wedding, The Mountain Goat (Ian) for an ill-fated walk across Hokkaido and Chris to Irojima, way down in Sthn Japan.
Mountain Goat shows his ability to read maps.
Mountain Goat counting the hours, minutes, seconds till that plane takes him outta Japan. He abandoned his walk across Japan at the beginning of this week, and arrived at my place early in the morning after an all night bus from Shikoku. He was quite shattered. But is venting his … whatever it is…. in his brilliant literary style at his new blog, The Goat that Wrote. Go add him to your RSS feeds now, he’s an excellent writer. In the mean time, Chris is still braving the trial, and will be updating the Four Corners of Japan blog regularly. He is also a brilliant writer and it’s a fascinating read, these adventures of his.
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Greg, the Canadian geneticist roomie, is off in the States for some conferences and to pay a quick trip to his home town. Hate being left in the house by myself. Especially now that it’s where I spend most days, working. I tend to get irrationally lonely and emotional and wonder what the f*ck I’m doing with my life that, at the age of 40, I have not managed to build a home of my own, with a man and kids and a menagerie of pets and visitors. And then wonder what the hell I’m thinking, calling myself a photographer, when I’m still such a novice! Fortunately, I’ve had a healthy stream of guests to stave off the worst of it. And some great photo shoots to help keep the creative spirit flowing. Can’t wait to share some of the pics from this weekends shoot with Sandi. Amazing stuff, that woman really knows how to work it for the camera. She also knows her way around a scrabble board, the biyotch beat me by 50 points tonight. Helen arrives tomorrow to stay for the week (she has work here in Kichijoji this week), so happy there’ll be someone here at night.
Technorati Tags: friends, Japan, Photography, Tokyo
The Pendragon Tour of Japan
Me, Jackie & Adrian at Ryoanji, one of the most famous zen gardens in Kyoto.
At Kinkakuji, Kyoto.
Our first night together we hit a lush, secret cocktail bar after dinner and drew sketches of each other, setting the theme for the rest of the tour. They are much better drawers than me.
Wandering around Gion, Kyoto.
This cute little puppy was sitting in a pink car. With pink ears.
The trip wasn’t all work, and they actually paid me (got an Arts Qld grant) to be their tour guide and bumbling translator, taking them around to the important shoemaking events and centres. They are shoemakers…..
At Sensoji, Asakusa.
Jackie. We’ve been friends for 23 years. One of the most beautiful people I know, in every possible respect.
I am a tad daunted by how far behind in the blog I have become. I spend SO much time at the computer that it’s hard to extend that time even further to the blog. Right now I’ve been at the computer since midday, working on a shoot I did on Friday, researching some photoshops tricks and – finally – editing some of the pics from Jackie & Adrians trip here and I an tell you now, my ass hurts and there is a pain in the small of my back that I just know won’t go away when I stand up. But I am slowly catching up on everything. And I have put a bunch of happy snaps up at facebook (and also here)so you can go take a look at what I’ve been up to.
If you’re in Tokyo, and you are an artist, you should come to the Pink Cow for the monthly Dr Sketchy’s live burlesque drawing class tomorrow night (Wednesday 28th May). A whole lot of fun with the funniest MC in Tokyo and lots of Yellowtail wine flowing. I’ll be the one with the camera…. See ya there.
Technorati Tags: friends, Japan, Kyoto, Photography, Tokyo, travel
Us 3
This is the reason things have been mighty quiet around the blog. My dear friends Adrian and Jackie have been visiting for almost 2 weeks. Our feet barely touched the ground the entire time. My kidney needs a serious detox and my mind needs some quiet time. Just wanted to let you know that all is awesome, and that I’ll be slowly easing back into photography and blogging again shortly, once I’ve done all the necessary catching up with all things mundane.
Tyler and Mihoko’s wedding
Tyler and Mihoko up at the wedding table….
Tyler and Mihoko arrive at their wedding party with a spotight, and a parasol.
Saying their vows.
Tyler and the priest waiting for Mihoko and her Dad to arrive.
On the road again!
I’m off to Nagasaki at sparrows fart tomorrow morning, as are Kat, Darin & Jake Taiga, to attend Tyler and Mihoko’s wedding. It’s gonna be such a hoot! Tylers family are coming out from Wisconsin and it’ll be their first time in Japan. There is a lot of cool stuff planned for us, hopefully the rain won’t be too much of a problem.
After the 3 day wedding celebrations settle down, I’m planning a slow trip up to Kyoto on my own, stopping off in Onomichi, Kurashiki and Nara. In Kyoto, I’m meeting up with my dear Aureole – she’ll be in Japan for 5 days on her way to the European Tattoo Convention circuit. I’m pretty excited about being able to show her Kyoto in hanami time. The cherry blossoms will be out and there’ll be a great vibe in the air.
Spring is really an important time in Japan (as I have mentioned on at least 5 other occasions) – an annual cycle ends, another begins. Schools graduate. Companies accept their new staff intakes. Taxes are paid… More so than usual, this spring feels like significant time for me. Lots of people leaving, others swinging by for visits, and all the while all of them/us making great plans for the future. I had an interesting meeting with a guy today about a potentially awesome option for my fabulous new career (in all it’s embryonic glory). Hope it pans out. Will be able to talk about it some more by the end of April (if we can make it happen!).
Anyways.
You can see some snaps from the past weeks worth of events over at my facebook albums. They include pics from the mad night out for the beautiful J-sters flying visit, Mountaingoat and Oshioto’s itterashai party at Araku, a day at the park and Timbo and Andrews sayonara party. Actually, Tim isn’t leaving till next week but Kat, Darin & I are heading off to Nagasaki so last night was the last night we’d all be in Tokyo the same night… seems so strange. I will really miss you, Tim. Tokyo won’t be quite the same without you.
Kanpai!
Bye Timbo!
Bye (again) Andrew!
Walk long and prosper Mountaingoat
*Love* that golden hair J-Ster!
Oh. And I bought a new camera.
Nabe, oh, nabe!
Tyler, Mihoko & I. We’re off to celebrate their wedding in Nagasaki later this month.
Andrew
Darin and Tyler. Kat is up in Aomori visiting her old host family with Jake.
Sandi, Jane & I
Nate and Robert
Friday was a significant day, so I celebrated the momentous occasion in fine style with a nabe party at my place with the local crew. Well, OK, so Sandi isn’t exactly a local but she does have a toothbrush here so I guess that makes her an honorary local. More fabulously crappy drunken photos taken partly by people who weren’t me on my camera here. Thanks to those who came, and especially to Justin who kept the cans under control and to Jane and Sandi for helping me clean up at 3 in the morning… Oh, and to Nate for the loan of the extra nabe bowl and cooker.
Nabe parties have this magical way of making you feel warm in so many ways:
Eating together from a shared pot is considered as an important feature of nabemono; East Asian people believe that eating from one pot makes for closer relationships. The Japanese thus say, Nabe (w)o kakomu (Èçã„ÇíÂõ?„ÇÄ„ÄÅ”sitting around the pot”), implying that sharing nabemono will create warm relations between the diners who eat together from the shared pot. (source: wikipedia)
A cozy way to pass a winters ‘eve, to be sure, to be sure.
Baby Jake wins hearts…
Jake is getting cuter every day.
Toothfaeries
Toothfaeries. Not just a fairy story!
I’m slowly catching up on the backlog of party pics from my time in Oz – there are truckloads of them, it’s quite daunting! These pics are just a few from the Toothfaeries reunion gig at The Zoo on Jan 5th – a few days before I flew back to Tokyo. It was an exceptional night full of the joy of life and old friends. You can see more – I hope – here.
The main star of these pic’s is a dear old friend, Grant. I was so happy to see him again, he’s got a kid now and is living in Melbourne working with street-kids and junkies as a counselor. I’m very proud of him.
The rest of the crew were all in fine form, and as much as things may change – some things will always stay the same. Hanging out in the band room that night made me feel like I had stepped back into 1998… except that we all look way more haggard these days. For those of you who didn’t know me back them, I should tell you that this band was my first foray into band management. I lived and breathed my job back then, and so these guys became like a family to me, as did The Zoo crew. So you understand how special this night was for all involved…
In other news, I have a four day weekend approaching. Gonna sleep like the dead. What is it about Tokyo that drives us to such spectacularly ambitious forms of self-abuse and overwork?
Oh, and did I mention that my gig as the photographer for the Australia Day Ball went off without a hitch? So proud of myself. More on that one soon…
Kenta
My friend Kenta is an awesome artist. We met up for lunch and coffee on Sunday, in Nishi-Ogikubo. He knew a cool organic restaurant there. The food was delicious, we both had the vegetarian set. I loved the use of a peanut as a chopstick rest.
After lunch we wandered around and found one of those little old-school Japanese style coffee shops, full of the owners eccentric tastes – an owl hooted every time someone walked through the door, the walls were covered in old clocks and strange memorabilia and dozens of chandeliers hung from the ceiling. In one corner there was a traditional kitchen hearth complete with iron fish-hook suspended above the fireplace.
We sat and talked for hours. He’s an interesting guy. He cycled from Tokyo to Bangkok via China, lived in Thailand for a long time, travelled all over Asia, parts of Australia and Samoa and speaks English and Thai equally fluently. His whole life is documented in the most beautiful diaries, most pages with drawings he made for each day.
These pages were written in Thailand.
This was a poem and sketch he made for his Granddad. He had died a month before but his Mum didn’t tell him because she didn’t want him to cut his trip short.
This was in Malaysia.
He’s just had one of his designs put on a tee-shirt at Patagonia and dreams of a simple life where he can travel and draw every day, instead of working in a Thai kitchen as a cook 6 days a week. His portfolio is seriously awesome.
We hugged our farewells on the train platform – he was off to Shibuya to check the in-store display of his shirt at Patagonia, and I was off home to write epitaphs. As I went, I looked at all the rushing people around me and wondered what their dreams are, and if they’ll ever achieve them before the grind of daily life crushes all their fire into ash. God, I hope I do. And I really hope Kenta does too. The phrase “leap and the net will appear” is ringing in my head louder than ever.
The heat rolls on and baby Dudley-Taiga’s almost here….
Hands up all you Tokyo-ites who thought the last days of summer had kinda passed? Yup, me too. Oh how wrong we were… today is 34 and hellaciously humid, as was yesterday. Planning to head out to Yoyogi Koen later for Sigsy‘s bday party but hot-damn, it’s gonna be hot out there. It’s a public holiday here today, so it’s gonna be busy out, too.
Life is good
Yuiko in Koganei Koen yesterday
Christian plays faun
They’ve been married for a couple of years now
Yama-chan disappeared to hug trees for a while
Koganei Koen is a beautiful, huge park. Western Tokyo is full of them, I’m slowly realising.
Went drinking with friends during the week, Kattsun was one of them. This is the best photo I took that night.
The mysterious Motorbike Samurai
Life is good when the weather warms up, the sun comes out, you get some days off and you get taken to dinner by a guy you’ve had a crush on for 2 years.
Technorati Tags: 1.4usm, canon300D, japan, photography, portraits, sigma17-70mm, tokyo
Tokyo Earthday
The main stage
Sleeping babe at a live trance gig
Yama-chan at the end of her tether after I shot about 6 consecutive pictures of her with her eyes closed!
There is something very disturbing about this picture of Christian….
Shen playing his gig (he’s the tabla player to the left)
Midnight super-ninja’s battling in the park…and then stopping to check out pictures of themselves doing battle
I went to the Tokyo Earthday Festival at Yoyogi with Yama-chan and Christian on Sunday. My old buddy Shen played a gig with some friends, and Pete came along a bit later in the evening with his 7 months-pregnant wife Amanda and his super-kawaii 3 year old Charlie (aka Sper-ninja!). It was a beautiful day. Which is a good thing since it was also my only day off.
Can’t keep my eyes open. Oyasumi-nasai.
Technorati Tags: 1.4usm, canon, canon300D, EF50mm/f/1.4usm, events, japan, earthday, tokyo
いってらしゃい　Charleneーさん
Charlene showing off her fabulous new hairstyle!
My beautiful, wacky, wonderful house-mate of the past 18 months is leaving Japan tomorrow, returning to Manitoba in central Canada where there is still snow 2 metres high. It doesn’t seem real. It’s too sad to think about too much. So I won’t. A lot of tears and laughter bonds us together, I’m sure we’ll hang out again sometime, somewhere, in the not too distant future….. The lovely Andrew left for Seattle today, too. Too many good byes in this expatriate life.
But on the other hand, there are also lots of hello’s. My new (old) flatmate (we used to live together with Timbo in Komaba Todaimae), Fuku-chan, has settled in to her room and will soon make a starring appearance here on the blog. We’ve had a lot of fun already – she likes a bit of a drink and a party, and met some of my closest friends on saturday night at Tylers birthday party. It’ll be great for my Japanese to live with a Japanese person again. Every conversation includes some language explanation. It’s great – we both really want to improve our respective language skills.
For my Australian family and friends: I’ve decided to make a trip back to Oz for about 5 weeks in far-away December/January, to celebrate my 40th B-day with all the old crew (family and friends) at my brothers house in Port Douglas, and then travel around the east coast catching up with everyone and maybe pop in to Woodford for the festival… Anyways, if you wanna start planning for a trip to Port D. around the first/second week of December I’d be really excited!
Araku rocks…
If I’m in Shinjuku for a drink and needing some place with a bit of atmosphere, I usually head to Golden Gai. I’ve written about it plenty of times before. It is a collection of cool little bars tucked away in a little part of Shinjuku, in cool, ramshackle, surprisingly clean little alleys, with plenty of history and character deeply imprinted into the walls.
If you ever make your way into Golden Gai, make sure you make time to drop in to Araku, my friend Tracey’s bar. Actually, I believe it’s her families bar… That’s her brother, Richard to the right and boyfriend/bartender extraordinaire, Ashley on the left in the above pic. They are all Australians and long term Japan residents (and actually, Tracey and Richard are the team that bring you the eternally useful mobile phone service TangoTown). Anyways, I digress, as I am often wont to do.
I dropped in there on Friday night for the first time and had a delightful time. Tracey and Ash run the bar on Wednesday and Friday nights, and on other nights of the week the place is staffed by fully bilingual staff so it’s a great place to go if your Japanese isn’t so great (in Golden Gai, if you don’t speak much Japanese you can have a hard time….. ). Anyways, that makes it good for international visitors who can’t speak any Japanese (erm, and the rest of us who are lazy to apply ourselves to extensive Japanese study). It’s got heaps of room, another unusual feature in Golden Gai where the average bar seats about 6 – 10 people…. Araku has room for around 20/25 people, and actually – there were about that many people in there on Friday night. It was pumping. They sell great Australian wines and a range of nibblies too. Open till dawn. Go ch-ch-check it out! (How to find Araku)
Here’s Sarah and Tracey being really still and sultry for the low-light photo… (god, can’t wait till my big camera is back from the shop!)
Technorati Tags: flickr, friends, japan, goldengai, puppy, shinjuku, tokyo
Aureole
Back in December, while she was visiting me on her way back to Australia, Aureole agreed to pose for me while I experimented with all 3 of my cameras to see how they all performed. The Holga won, hands down, creating some beautiful atmospheric images that now form an important series in mOnOchrOmic, the exhibition open now. But the Canon G3 and 300D did OK jobs too. I just posted a few of the better ones to flickr – go take a look at Aureole in the bath….
It was fun doing this. We tried to make the water all milky, using bathsalts and, well… milk. But when she put her head under water, her hair dye ran turning the water a dark red. She is really comfortable in front of a camera, and being as tattooed as she is, she’s a popular subject for her photographer friends. It was a great setting to do an experimental shoot like this, because it was really relaxed and casual and I got to play with cameras and settings and light and so on in a really comfortable atmosphere. I’m looking forward to her next visit so we can try out something new.
[posted with ecto]
Technorati Tags: flickr, friends, japan, kichijoji, photography, portraits, tattoo, tokyo
Opening night party pics and sundry items…
The opening night party was a hoot. Thanks to everyone who came, and especially to Tyler, Yuta and Lisa for helping me hang the photos – and continuing to do so after I left to go teach a class for an hour and a half… (doh!). I just made a new Flickr album with a bunch of happy snaps and polaroids from the mOnOchrOmic opening party. Go check it out.
Anyway, as for the exhibition itself, so far, so good. Sold 5 prints (3 to strangers), had 2 frames drop off the walls and get damaged (*sigh) and made a bunch of new friends. Mikorin (the owner of the nomiya where I’m exhibiting) has been amazing, she’s such a thoughtful woman, I’m fortunate to be able to count her as a friend.
The past 10 days or so have been so crazily busy, I feel quite dazed now, and I’m kinda worried that there’s no chance on the horizon for some down time. The only day I have some free time is Thursday, and I have to go back to the immigration office to pick up my new visa on that day. Really hope they found it in their stingy hearts to give me a 3 year visa this time, I’m heartily sick of the annual hassle. Hope I don’t melt down any time soon….
If you live in Tokyo, please do try to come down and take a look at the exhibition. It was a lot of work and I’m quite proud of it. I would be honoured if you made the trek to pink gai in Kichijoji to check it out.
Technorati Tags: flickr, friends, japan, kichijoji, parties, tokyo, toycameras
