Field Day '08

filthy dukes

my trusty old "do the collapse" t shirt
tunng

of montreal



the notwist

More photoblogging. This time from the second Field Day in Victoria Park which had improved facilities (though still queues, or at least confusion over queues around the toilets, the urinals were always free but difficult to get to) but managed once again to bring a convincingly leftfield lineup and a young hipsterish but friendly and chilled crowd to this beloved East London park.  Highlights were tunng (who played in the rain and made the rain seem lush and somehow fitting, and it stopped at the end of their set), the fantastically morbid Alasdair Roberts and The Notwist. (They took ages to set up in a rammed tent, it was pissing it down outside, and the DJs decided to play really cheesy 90s club music. When they did come on I was a bit worried but they managed to win the crowd over with a very charged, nerdy, complex and somehow still uplifting  and emotional set, they always seem to go down well at festivals in my experience.) Of Montreal were good too but the sound was crap on the main stage and it rained the whole time, so a bit frustrating, like reaching out to something that is slightly removed. Still it happened, especially "The past is a grotesque animal", even though barely audible at times, I closed my eyes and went into that zone/breakdown. Also saw Richie Hawtins, Foals, Filthy Dukes, bit of Efterklang, etc. all quite entertaining...   

Thames Walk, second leg: Cricklade to Upper Inglesham

Some pics from the second leg of the Thames Path, from Cricklade to Upper Inglesham. Our destination should have been the old town of Lechlade but bus connections made it difficult to do that so we had to cut it short slightly. This is somewhere near Swindon, and near the Cotswolds. The countryside is fairly flat and very quiet around there, just a few old villages here and there, and the Thames is just a pleasant little stream, in its adolescence so to speak, kinda amazing if you know the big urban river down in London. A colleague wants to walk the whole path and I'm joining her as much as I can, we've already been at the source and have done two legs now (though I've done quite a few parts of the Thames walk before, especially around Henley, and also going out of London). Most of the picture were taking in a small village called Castle Eaton that - confusingly - doesn't have a castle, though there is an impressive old church and churchyard backing right onto the river, and a very old school pub with a beautiful riverside garden that feels almost like a private garden and that was almost empty during our visit. 

Even though the forecast was "heavy showers" we didn't see any of that - in fact the sun came out after a while and I even got quite burned in the end. The light was beautiful though, and the way the water reflected the lush scenery, and the shadows on the deep green, it all made for some trippy pictures, somehow reminding me of the images used for old Cocteau Twins/4AD covers. So in the unlikely event that the Cocteaus would make another record (yes please!) they could use these, I don't mind...

Sweden West Coast slideshow pt 1

Mimi and Astrid on "Deer Rock" (Mimi saw a deer from there!)


view from the outside of our little summer house near Bovallstrand, a few kilometers inland from the coast

The Ybifjord near Nordens Ark nature park/zoo. Apparently not a proper Fjord...

Camilla's new facebook profile. "Ahhhhhhh...."

she looks Korean...

Julia, Astrid and Camilla in the farm house in Nordens Ark
the rocks outside Smoegen


the little country lane leading towards our house at dusk
bathing spot on Hallö, a barren island and nature reserve that you can get to by boat from Smögen
rocky hill on the walk to Bovallstrand

Sweden West Coast slideshow pt 2

These dark red fishermen's huts are everywhere...

again, the wild rocky scenery just outside Smoegen harbour





a lake with beautiful grass growing in it, deep in the woods...

back on the rocks near our house, where you can already see the coast in the distance





Mimi, Anton, Astrid, Julia and Camilla.

A bit of a reunion for a couple of days. Camilla and Astrid used to live with me in that famous "communal" and/or party house in Brighton Kemptown for a while in the 90s, both are now back in Sweden, Astrid has a family with two kids now and works as a gender consultant, Camilla is now a published author and translator. They came out for a couple of days while we were staying there, and we visited Nordens Ark nature park/zoo where you can see wolves, wolverines, tigers, reindeer and other animals in large enclosures, situated on a gorgeous woody hill overlooking a fjord (the kids loved it and so did we) and later Smoegen.

We had hired a little house in the sticks, built on the side of a huge flat elevated rock, on the Swedish west coast, somewhere between Bovallstrand and Hunnebostrand, near the famous old port town and island of Smögen, but a few kilometers inland from the coast. These rocky hills are everywhere around there, also deep woods, and by the coast some quite spectacular scenery. Fortunately there were buses and hiking trails, as we didn't have a car, notably the Söte Leden, a well-signposted (though quite challenging in places) long distance trail meandering in different branches around the area, mainly through the inland woods and hills, and passing our house close by.