Tag Archives: coffee

Black Lips and coffee

Yesterday was a good day. I hung out with my friend Suzannah on her new rooftop terrace, while sipping Savanna’s in the late afternoon sun. This is always a good thing, obviously. That was after I met up with another friend for coffee and before I met up with Miss P from the Beyond Culture Foundation about a possible collaboration on my Swimming Upstream project. It looks promising as we are both interested in collaborating. I just need to figure out how to tie it all together. And when.. I got home tired and cold as it seemed to be below zero on the train at 1.30 am.

As for the rest of the week; finished editing a photo shoot, entered the Ernest Cole Award competition, sent out my project proposal, submitted work to different magazines, ran 50 km’s and am backing up my files as we speak. I’ll pay a visit to the Dutch Doc Days tomorrow.  I am interested in seeing Teun Voeten‘s documentary on ‘Tunnel People’ and the screening of ‘Looking for an Icon’.

The sun is out, I’m listening to the Black Lips ‘Arabia Mountain’ and sipping coffee. It’s a good day to sit on some ideas before I make decisions next week.

The photo, btw, is of the talented dancer/choreographer Marijke de Vos from Teddy Shouldn’t Smoke.

Have a cool Friday all.

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A different time in space

A different time in space
 
If I was the melancholic type, I’d wish it was still that time in space but that’s a different story..
 
Yesterday. Kind of an odd day. I woke up to a very grey and wet Utrecht. Waking up in a new place is always a bit odd to begin with. You see, I am staying at friend’s place who’s on holiday in Jordan right now. I used to live next door to him (at this place: hello operator ) so everything is very familiar but not the same. And not mine. Anyway, it was the day of my first photo shoot and first job interview since getting back to the NL. I was hired by a copy writing agency to do a corporate shoot for an in-house magazine. The shoot was originally planned at a building site but seeing how the weather was utterly crap I decided to change locations. I felt a little out-of-place doing so as I’m not really in charge and the outside location had been approved by the 3 parties involved but hey, feeling a little odd is better than coming across as incapable ’cause everyone would have drowned during the shoot and the photos could quite possibly have turned out crap. So I changed locations and I am glad I did. The shoot went by quite fast and I had fun doing it. People were friendly and cooperative and it was nice telling people what to do again:)
 
 After the shoot I had to rush across town (on my bicycle, in the rain) to a school for a job interview. The interview went well but I am kind of hoping I don’t get the job as I am looking for something with a bit more weight to it. I have gotten another photo job for at the end of this month and that’s quite cool too. Am a little worried about not having received an invoice yet for FotoFestivalNaarden (the invoice comes *after* you’ve paid and entered the competition and basically serves as a confirmation notice). I hope they received everything in good order. If I don’t get in because they find my work not suitable that’s one thing but to not get in on administrative errors is uhm, *another*.  I also have to keep my eye on the S.I.P. deadline and start working on my proposal. I really do think I could do a good job on writing a reasearch paper on photography. Plus, apply for jobs on this side obviously. And there’s still the Itch submissions, and Mahala… and Hollands Diep.. And… 🙂
 
And I have a meeting with a fashion magazine next week and am quite excited by the idea. I don’t want to say too much as I am afraid to jinx it. Spurred on by the meeting though, I decided to take all the Swimming Upstream interviews, re-read, re-edit them and write one more general article on the Cape Town creative scene. I approached some young corporates in the creative scene to counter balance the interviews with the artists. I wonder what magazine editors, gallery owners or journalists have to say. So far I approached 4 people but only heard back from one so far, thanks Shani/The Imaginarium. Then again, I only asked people last night:)
 
So my question to you is, when you think about the Cape Town creative scene what springs to mind? Is there anything remarkable, odd or lacking? There is so much creativity in CT but what do you think of the quality of work that is produced? Should the local government provide for.. for what? Is there anything that Cape Town really needs?
 
 
A different time in space… I don’t know why that random remark gets to me so. Being back in Utrecht is a step back in time. Trying to get work here with work I did there so I can go elsewhere. I have one foot here, another there. Trying to connect the dots. I already know here my heart is as I know exactly where my mind wanders. Time. Space. I need both. Whatever. I’m here. My heart not. It’s probably a decision you make. But I did that in June ’09 already when I quit my job.
 
Like I said, time for more coffee.
 
 
 
 

Into something

It’s crazy, I still do the same thing I did when I was in high school, or at university, around exam time. I have so much stuff to do that I end up doing nothing. I am suddenly very good at making lists, catching up with friends, googling facts or trivia; now what exactly is the difference between a virus and bacteria? And damn, Monty Python cracks me up (youtube).. you get  the idea. I am also very good at editing photos that really don’t need no editing right now.
 
 Fortunately, the fear of failure is keeping me from doing absolutely nothing so I did sent out useful emails, edited the last two of three shoots and have started putting some more quotes into Photoshop this morning.
 
This song keeps me sane and happy, sadly no proper video, but awesome song nonetheless:
 
They say that bananas are good for you for a number of reasons such as Kalium but apparently they also help calm your nervous system… I am suddenly eating a lot of bananas, I can tell you that much. 
Bananas, The Kills, Neil Young and Santogold, an odd but good combination:-)
And coffee, don’t forget the coffee..