Five Things
I suppose it was inevitable that the five things meme would get me at some point. Kevin Bjorke tagged me so, after some squirming about it, I have to tell the readers of this blog five things they dont know about me.
1. The acronym, GASP, was first used for some software I wrote (so, Gary Alexander Software Productions). Unfortunately the computer was built from a kit and despite its exciting (for the time) graphics capabilities, almost nobody bought it. As youll see from the picture, the software was delivered on audio cassette. One program was a Pacman ripoff and the other a graphics program which was developed for designing the Pacman sprites. The gasp is supposed to be a little ironic and my favourite usage was when I was working in television and I borrowed the SP from BetaSP (tape) where it stood for Superior Performance. I always told people this with a serious face and nobody ever laughed. It didnt even occur to me that it could stand for Street Photography until years after I started this web site.
2. I have this much vinyl. Converting it to digital is a chore which Id recently cranked myself up for but after about five albums my record deck gave up so now I keep pondering one of those USB decks. The shelf is bending - my camera doesnt barrel that much.
4. My Father was a Prison Warder.
3. Ive been vegan since 1992. I realise that most people who know me, know Im vegan but I can never remember the answer to the how long question, so there it is.
5. I didn’t go to art school. Well, thats pretty obvious if you read my bio page but I did teach myself to draw while I was studying to be a software engineer. It seems I formally study things that I realise later I dont want to do and self-teach the things I do want to do.
I now have to tag five other people. Why is it that almost everybody I know doesn’t blog? Probably to avoid things like this. I tag: Julian, Eamon (who I’ve never even met), Sarah, Max and Nils. Apologies to all.
CMT at Kinetica
A new Cabaret Mechanical Theatre show opens at the end of next week at Kinetica in London and runs for a month.
ResonanceFM Fundraiser
ResonanceFM (London’s first radio arts station - providing “a radical alternative to the universal formulae of mainstream broadcasting”) is raising money so it can stay on air, buy a new antenna, etc. Even if you’re not in London, they’re worth supporting so that me, you and everyone else can listen online.
Products from a Former Life
Since it’s too late to think about shopping I thought that now would be a good time to mention a few items which have recently become available again. Three videos that I made for Cabaret Mechanical Theatre are now on DVD and a book that I co-authored has recently been reprinted. The book is about basic mechanisms and making things move - it’s available directly from CMT, or from amazon in the UK and now from Make:, the Make: Magazine people, in the USA. The DVDs are available from CMT as follows: Cabaret Mechanical Video, How to Make Automata and my favourite, Made in Stithians.
See Also
London Art Galleries
I originally started my page of links to London art gallery web sites because a lot of them were very hard to find via google. However, it has since become very popular so I’ve tidied it up a bit and added a featured gallery spot at the top with the vague plan of making vast amounts of advertising revenue [Update: I've given the page its own domain]. I never set out to be a listings guy but hey, if it means I can take more pictures we can’t complain. This picture was taken after a wander around the insides of Battersea Power Station. More art.
Walking and Teaching
This picture was taken while wandering with students on the recent course I ran at Photofusion.
The first time I ran the course we took the easy option of going out on the roof which was ok but I think the students preferred the stroll along the Southbank that we did this time. The course is due to run again in January and should be listed on the link above soon.
Street Photography
Definitions, pigeon-holes, limitations and inspiration. Are people who hang on to the “old” forms of street photography the equivalent of stuckist painters? I’m tempted to write something longer in response to the suggestion that Street Photography is dead but in the meantime here’s a picture of a bus stop.
Delegate
I’ve finally started moving all my archived photos from CDs and DVDs onto an external hard disk. There are nearly 7 years worth of backups so it’s a somewhat daunting task (especially as I make at least two copies of everything). Fortunately a daughter who normally spends her time knitting and watching daytime TV is at hand. We’re about a third of the way through and assuming I will eventually abandon iView, I’ve started throwing the pictures into the Lightroom beta, hoping they don’t price it in a way that makes me have to consider Aperture.
Street Panoramas Book
I’ve been intending to make a shelf-challenging book of panoramic photos for a long time but the intended size has even intimidated me, so in the meantime, I’ve put together a small, pocket-sized, version. Entitled, Small Book Big City, this is a limited edition of only ten copies and to ease the pain of the size versus price ratio it comes with a print (approx 20″ / 50cm long) of one of the images. You can see all the pictures in the book and find out more, here.
Digital Photography Courses London
This is mainly a plug for a course I’m running at Photofusion in October but as ever, you can ignore the text and just look at the picture (click to enlarge). The course is called ‘Starting Digital Photography’, it runs for three days (3, 4, 5th October) and is aimed at people who want to get the most from their digital SLR and an introduction to Photoshop. More details on the Photofusion page. The course is limited to eight people but if you’d prefer something more tailored, or shorter, I also do one-to-one tuition.
The Films of Jacques Rivette
Usually long but always intriguing. We managed to see four that were new to me during the recent NFT season and have also been catching up by renting the few available DVDs. Tonight was Histoire de Marie et Julien which may well be his “greatest achievement” but although the cat was very good, of the more recent films, I preferred Va Savoir.
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