Visual Update #6

01. This was taken on set of filming our music video assignment to Macklemore's Thrift Shop. One of the dancers brought her beautiful little Bischon-Frise, Ted!

02. I haven't been able to get enough of Twinings Jasmine Green Tea recently. A.K.A Princess Tea!

03. Last week I went to my first ever auction at the Park Inn Hotel near Heathrow. It was an exciting experience and there was a lot on offer- from electronics to wine to works of art and memorabilia. My particular favourites were the signatures of all those that had been to the moon and a signed Paul Mccartney guitar. Needless to say the bids got crazy and we returned home empty handed. Perhaps one day, when I've made my fortune! 

04. My recent purchases include this rather dapper ensemble of a beyond retro hat and PPQ London leather creepers!

05. On Wednesday I went to the London College Of Fashion to model some lovely footwear designed by final year student Rosie Beagent. I loved her rubber boots! In just under two hours we were done as it was pretty much parts modelling and Rosie gave me a lovely card to say thank you, no client has ever done that before- how sweet!

06. It was my best friend's birthday yesterday so we had a little shindig on Friday. It was great to catchup with her, my sister and other friends!

07. Yesterday was an errand running/shopping day. I stumbled across this twee postcard in an organic shop in Marlow. Its definitely me to a tea!

08. I interviewed another FNOOB resident for our ongoing feature ' MEET TEAM FNOOB'. I love doing these little interviews and finding out interesting tidbits about the team! You can read the latest instalment here.

So thats a little insight into my last week or so, how has yours been? Do let me know by commenting below or tweeting me! 

xo

Visual Update #5

01. Woah spring? summer? is finally here. We've had a fair few days of blue skies and warmth recently which is exciting and has definitely induced beach cravings! Once again I will promise myself that I will visit a beach sometime this summer! Its been a quiet sort of week for me bar Major Lazer's gig at the Oxford O2 Academy on Thursday. So I've been studying hard and admiring the blossoming flora in my back garden. We've even had 2 BBQs so far!

02/03. On Thursday I unexpectedly found myself in Oxford for Major Lazer's gig at the O2 Academy with my lovely friend Katrina. We off course were right at the barrier, twerking and getting down as per usual. Even at our age, we felt like amongst the oldest there, it seems a lot of teens frequent the venue and whilst some of them were rude to say the least we still enjoyed what was a staggeringly good gig! Ms Dynamite supported, warming up the crowd with a mixed bag of both old and new hits. 'I love the energy tonight', 'I love it' and 'Give yourselves a round of applause, you are amazing' she kept saying. Most of these young'uns didn't recognise her older stuff but we belted out her tunes back to her and I could of sworn she was looking right at me whilst doing so (as does every attractive male band member as all the gigs I go to, I swear/hope/SWEAR) hehe. Then it was Major Lazer's turn and boy did they bring it! Up and coming musicians the world over, take your stage presence 101 from these guys. Two dancers adorned the stage, two hype men and thats not including Diplo his very self and all of the confetti, cava, horns and Major Lazer dollars they threw out into the crowd. Ooh and the band themselves crowdsurfed- despite the signs saying anyone who did would be thrown out. A flock of lucky girls from the audience were invited onstage to dance and then a young lad was called on unbeknown to him that he would be getting his very own, very public lapdance by the dancers. All in all it was one of the best gigs I'd been to in a while and I loved getting to catch up with Kat too!

04. I looked after Tammy and took her for a walk, Emily came with us and really surprised me.  Normally she is quite the subdued cat but that morning she kind of threw herself at a tree, proceeded to climb it and then fell off! If you follow my instagram or know me, my cats are regular feature.

05. I thought I'd make good on my mild sweet addiction and am currently turning some fruitella wrappers into a bracelet, nifty eh and recycled too!

I've also been out learning to drive again in the field out back of the house which is exciting albeit a little nerve wracking at times but I'm made good progress since last time!
This week (or what is left of my set in stone working week) I'll be filming for my course and getting stuck into whatever else comes my way. I go with the flow.
What have you been up to this past week? Have you enjoyed your bank holiday weekend?

00TD // PR1NTS

Ah Monday, the dreaded day! 

Today I arose to another beautiful sunny spring day, a little reluctantly (I was up working til 3am last night) but this glorious weather spurred me on I and threw on my garments for the day. Now that the skies are looking bluer and the suns been making an appearance I couldn't turn down the opportunity to ditch the black and opt for this vintage yellow Brownies jumper and navy blue bandana combo.  A bit of a mix of subcultures too! 

It might be the only yellow item of clothing I own but its one of my favourite wardrobe pieces that I have no qualms with wearing. Bandanas are so versatile too- I tend to wear mine as a headband but it works great worn as a scarf, tied round the wrist or anywhere else you can possibly think of. I teamed denim shorts, black tights and creepers with this look. 

What do you think of my outfit today?

I also recently got some film processed. It had been sitting in my trusty point and shoot (canon sureshot  AF-7) for a good while so I was delighted that my local branch of Jessops were still open and ready to print them. I only got 16 out of 36 exposures as I had to cut off a large strip of film due to  the camera's automatic winder having a tantrum so I was a little bummed but here they are (all 35mm by the way)

This one was taken in September 2012 whilst I was on the Isle Of Wight for Bestival. You can my Lubitel 2 and my discarded shoes. I was really happy we'd made it to the beach whilst the weather was still nice! 

I took this whilst I was in France over Christmas 2012. Again this was near the beach, though this time  it wasn't quite nice enough to sunbathe! 

My mother on the left and my Sister on the right at my birthday meal in September. They look so alike its uncanny! 

This one was taken more recently at college. My rather musically talented friend was playing ukelele and singing. Its gone a bit redscale which I can put down to the film being exposed.  Seriously someone should ban me from opening the back of my camera or at least drill it into me to turn the camera off and place myself in a dark room before doing so! I must admit I do like the end result though!

This is definitely one of my favourites of all the prints that came out. It was taken in the 'Ambient Forest' bit of Bestival where I think I would be content living, its a sight to behold in the daytime and a fairy lit fantasy come night time. A friend pointed out that the shot looked very 'monet'. 

A very faint rainbow over my hometown. 

I took this as we drove off the ferry and onto French soil. It may seem just a pov shot from the interior of a car to you but to me it bears significance. Until this I hadn't left the country for twelve years and I was really excited about soaking up as much as I could of France whilst I was there. 

I believe this was another one taken at Bestival, whilst Florence And The Machine were playing. It was  such a treat to finally see her live, I also got to see The XX perform which was equally a treat!

My next goal lomo wise is to finish up my roll of medium format in my Lubitel 2 and get that developed or maybe even develop it myself! I do la la la love lomography, these cameras and their films  seem to capture memories in such a nostalgic way and they sit there holding them for us until we finally get round to developing them. 

What do you think of my photos? Have you been to Bestival? Do you love the Ambient Forest as much as I do?

Do let me know in the comments or by tweeting me @abitha_arabella  ! 

:''D

Visual Update #4

Rocket cous cous and green tea | Lavender Oil | Spring Florals | Treehouse @ Family BBQ

Spring has sort of finally arrived, is it safe to say that yet? and I've thus really enjoyed it so far. I'm not sure if my body has- not only have I've been ill with some sort of tummy infection but it just doesn't know how to respond to the current climate. My brain in particular- is it okay to go out in shorts, a dress, an outfit that doesn't include trousers?!? I've soldiered on, treating myself to baths and lavender oil and walks round the garden. All of the flowers are starting to bloom, its kind of infectious. I've been nomming on lots of rocket and a bit of goats cheese- divine foods!

Magnolia Tree In The Garden | Tammy | Free Call Courtesey Of BT | Train Ticket Floor Finding

The magnolia tree has finally began to bloom, its late but better that than never. Honestly I think this beautiful flora is spurring on my optimism at the moment! Thats Tammy our dog posing for me in the garden. I was longchanged(?) by the trusty old telephone box outside the train station. I inserted 60p to make a phone call and it returned 70, why thank you telephone. And whilst I was waiting to be picked up, I spotted this cool little ticket.

Crystal Fighters Gig | Zombie Girl | Modelling For A Fashion Film @ LCF | Studying

Of course I went to see Crystal Fighters a week or so ago, you can read more on that here. 

I've been throwing myself head first into my video production course work, so I've been making videos and turning myself into a zombie whilst slaving over essays (which I really secretly love) and I also modelled in a little fashion film at The London College Of Fashion over the weekend. I can't wait to see the results, but more to come on that later! Ooh and I got some film from last year developed, I'll cook you up a post on it tomorrow. Alas it is late (I've been up recording my voice for videos) so I'll bid you all good night and we'll regroup tomorrow. 

Abitha xo

Crystal Fighters Secret Gig 18-04-13

Crystal Fighters Secret Gig

18.04.13

Hoxton Square Bar And Kitchen

From butthurt to appeasement 

Recently it was brought to my attention that Crystal Fighters, one of my favourite bands of the moment were going to be doing a secret show for fans. With secret being the operative word here, the gig wasn't  heavily advertised and you had to enter your email to be sent the invite.  Printouts in hand, myself and my good pal Alice (and her beautiful mother and friend) arrived at the venue (7PM), stood in line and ordered in our respective beverages of choice. We admired the indie art adorning the walls, we jumped at the offer of free posters and stickers. But little did we know what was going to follow...

After waiting for about an hour and a half we finally got closer to the function room's entrance, at which point we went out for a cigarette and returned to learn that we'd made into the confines of just-before-the-cut-off-point. The bouncer told us that we'd definitely be getting in (cue fist clenched-eureka- elbow-towards-your-body-action*) but we were told that there was no more entry til 9:30. That was okay though, because we were definitely going to get in, right? 

We watched as those with wristbands were allowed into the packed little room in front of us, how had they managed to get in we wondered, when we'd arrived there wasn't many people (we were blind to how many people were now queueing up outside down the street behind us). It turns out some people had got there mega early, fair enough. Oh AND (so I've heard) 150 guest passes had been given out to a 250 capacity gig FOR FANS. 

This slightly angered me, I had thought that due to the fact this was a free gig for fans it wouldn't be a 'press thing' had I known I could have secured definite entry and saved us from the 2 and a bit hours (maybe more?) agony we endured. What made it worse was that a quick scour of twitter revealed a few triumphant guest listers who acknowledged the hourdes of fans queuing up and then gloated about being on the list #nobiggie. Cue butthurtness. 

I suppose  found this experience was refreshing, going to a gig as a punter, a massive fan with no responsibility but to enjoy myself rather than focus on what I could potentially report on. Though one of the perks of my journalism role is that I do get to see my favourite bands, tonight technically there was nothing separating me from everyone else waiting in line. And like them I was angry  envious  at each and every suited media mogul who fleeted past me gaining instant access.

"There is no more entry to this gig tonight, could you please clear this area". Nobody moved. Five minutes later "You're not going to be let in, please clear this area, if you want to stay the gig will be played through the speakers". To a diehard fans this statement provided little compensation. A group of us decided to stay, Alice and I hung on whilst the rest of our group decided to grab a bite. Crystal Fighters took to the stage. The curtains were opened in front of the doors so we could glimpse what we were missing. The throng pushed, we were told to step back, "we" pushed still, breaking into dance and song. 

"Are this band quite big then?" the bouncer shouted over the music at us. 
"Not really, they're just really good, they have a lot of fans" came Alice's reply.
"They're signed to Atlantic" informed music journo knowledge?!?
Though we were mad at the bouncer for letting people who had pushed in front of us (a fan on fan don't punishable by seething looks and sometimes rude oratory output) in and for essentially doing his job he then redeemed himself. 
One clever gal decided to ask someone leaving the room whether they were coming back and if they could have their wristband if they weren't. Bingo, they didn't. Of course the bouncer shouldn't care, its  a numbers game after all. So this became the new system. People crossed the threshold, were queried and wristbands were given to the initially butthurt hangers about.
"Be nice, we're next". 
And finally we were in, cue appeasement. 
"There's no way we're going to get any further in" did say Alice. But oh how she was wrong. Utilising my slightness, MASSIVE bag and determination, I got us to the front because lets face it when you're barely legal or < if you're not at the front (or as close to) its not worth it. 

Crystal Fighters played a blinder of set, featuring  their latest numbers 'Wave', 'Separator' as well as the old favourites 'Champion Sound', 'Solar System' and 'Xtatic Truth'. There wasn't a single person not jumping, dancing, flailing or a combination of the three. 

Sebastian looked like a wizard and danced like a hippy. Honestly it was like he was in his own little world but still managing to sing perfectly in the real time of reality. 

Gilbert rocked the pianos and synths out back. 

A topless Graham brought the noise on guitar 

And Ellie also lent her impressive vocals and stagewomanship to the success of the gig. Looking beautiful in a dress designed by a friend. Go check out some of her acapella work on YouTube!

All in all, we came away very happy with Crystal Fighter's performance and our persistence to see them do so. We came, we danced and we conquered. Drowned in accumulated sweat we made for the exit and made some new friends including one of Crystal Fighters themselves. Ellie was absolutely lovely to meet and chat with.

The bouncers even took a selfie on my phone. What sports.

To conclude, the unwavering performance of The Crystal Fighters dissipated most  of the trials and tribulations it took to see them. They were a treat to the ears of us that managed to get in. But if it is true that there were so many guest passes given out to a fan show then I hope the next one is better arranged, especially given it was marketed as an "operative word" FAN affair. 

* Does anyone know the proper term for that clenching your fist and shouting 'Yesss!' action?

LINKS

Crystal Fighters

Hoxton Square Bar

Stevie Gee

What we could see at this point

Visual Update #3

Went to see Trance | Won A Limited Edition All Saints Tee | AAA| The Orb Gig @ Electric Brixton | The Orb Gig Banner | Razda/Robbie being a beaut' | Ploughing through all the orders at Gem's Dry Skin Cream | Zombie Makeup Practice.