Water

always seems to fascinate us... Well or at least me... I don't know whether that is 70% of me (or whatever share of me is water) trying to belong to 'something larger' or is it just the fascination of seeing the entire world reflect in every minute droplet... each time a bit different, from a different angle, with a different reflection, a touch different colours, reflecting a trapped moment from a millisecond ago (which probably just makes me a big sentimental and nostalgic sod, pining for the fjords that were never designed...)

Dancing in the street vs. Dancing in the rain

Nobody prepared the Fred Astaire routine, and living in a rainy town like Ljubljana, one should have a routine planned for a rainy day. Even though a few performances were cancelled due to the rain and that there was a sort of last minute change of plans I managed to catch most of the ones I wanted to... (Hu-rah!)... And yes, it would be much nicer and more pleasent if the sun was shinning, soap bubbles were floating through the air, birds were singing and I had a gorgeous camera assistant who couldn't stop nibbling my neck... but one can't have it all.. so today we had dance, next week there might be some sunshine, in the summer we might see some soap bubbles floating gently through the air and one day my neck might be nibbled again...
But until then, here is a photo from one of the dance performances yesterday...

What was that?

There used to be an advert that ended in a little jingle Nescafe... The better way to start the day... (or at least I think it went something like that... memories can play funny tricks on you, especially as this was at a time I was too young to drink coffee - I have no idea why I don't drink it now). But anyway, they were wrong... A relaxing concert is the better way to start the day... Luckily we have people who are crazy enough to organise these concerts once a month...

Revolutionary songs

After adding a touch of havoc (yes J. I used this word just to amuse you) to the official state celebrations the night before, the ones who mastered the energy continued with their mission... Revolution is in the air... you know how it goes... a butterfly flaps its wings in Lybia and the government is overthrown in Egypt... A song is sang quietly on top of the hill, and people have their rights and diginity returned...

Day off

I thought I would have a day with no photographs for a change. So I did. I think every now and then it is good to take a day off... from work, from fun, from worries, from games, from your partner, from anything really... So that was my day with no photographing fun... Instead I was just hanging out with some of my friends, who still recognised me even without a lens in the middle of my face...

Dancing

on Easter Monday. Unexpectedly. Unexpected fun I would call this.

The wrong side...

...of the wall. Need to get to the other side somehow...

I might have missed

the opening, but I saw the exhibition.

The continuing saga of your favourite amateur...

As it happens so often to me, I finally reached a decission as to where I want to go this Friday night sort of five minutes to half past something o'clock - which, even though it was five to, was about three days to late.... So I came to the concert venue and was introduced to the organiser - who after a very brief exchange of words told me rather patrionisingly that in today's world the internet does not count for anything, as everything that is worth anything can (or was that should?) be found on paper. Luckily this concert was at a venue for which I came up with a project for six years ago (with my friend DJ) and thus one of the employees got me in with her get out of jail free coupon... So, I enjoyed the concert anyway (which was the main objective) and took some photos that are worth showing the rest of you (which is equally important)...

Diss & Luvstory

or pain & misery it seems... This was one of the performances I saw tonight... The text in the last part (the luvstory) was inspired by Sarah Kane... and the whole performance was quite full of panic, misery and pain... and reminded me of something I wrote (or tossed up as the Monty Pythons would say) almost a year ago... So here it comes:

Licking Sarah Kane's pain

Picking up Dali's kneecaps
scattered on the ground
during the summer storm.
Tossing them away one by one
'cos they don't fit the hole.
In the midst I kneel
rejecting reality.

Chasing Picasso's eyeballs
rolling around in the dirt
following a brief encounter with terror.
Tossing them away one by one
'cos they don't fit the hole.
Blind I stand
unable to see reality

Licking Sarah Kane's pain
that filled the air
as the life got punched out of me.
Unable to make it go away
'cos it fits the hole
where I once used to be.

So this was last July. Suprisingly enough the whole experience left me with some vivid dreams that lead to this:

Gimme a break

I don't want to go to bed no more
I don't want to close my eyes ever again
I don't wanto to dream no more
I don't want to feel the dark pain

I am tired of seeing the multitude of bodies
resembling Sarah Kane and me
the thousands of twisted and mutilated torsos
dangling from a single black tree
broken limbs and heads with angry stares
scattered under the lifeless branches
smashed hearts and empty stares
covering the dust of Death Valley
angry at the world, but even more at me
the two heads on the very edge
tilt towards the sun and move slightly
trying to escape unnoticed
searching for the light
the brigh bright light
of the underground

I don't want to go to bed no more
I don't want to close my eyes ever again
I don't want to dream no more
I don't want to feel the dark
nevermore, nevermore...


So this is what my apparently extremely depressed subconscious has coughed up for today... Luckily for me there is another day tomorrow, and the two heads are trying to go for the sun....
(Oh, and Sarah, a certain distance is necessary between the two of us...)

Dance photographer

Could that be me? One day? Someday? Any day? For a day? (No that would not be enough really, and I think I have done that already)

Funny story

There is a funny story behind this photo. At the concert this guy approached me, and he was obviously drunk or stonned or something... He started talking to me and explaining what his photographer friend told him about taking real photographs... so after a few minutes and exchanging some pleasantries as one does when trying to make sense from a drunk, I left (it was in between a band switchover), because I thought I truly deserve that beer now... so anyway... I came back and the new band started playing... and they were playing their stuff... they were well into their groove and all... and at about the third song, I suddenly see this guy playing the keyboards in the background (behind the band) and having a great time... He played for about a song and a half (the keyboards were not connected to the amplifier) and then stumbled away... but during that time he certainly had the best time on stage and I think the band did not notice him and most people thought he was with the band except for the few who noticed he just stumbled on stage midsong, played the keyboards for a while without actually adding any sounds to the band, and then stumbling off the stage...

A rather wild bass player...

and he kept it up throughout the concert. The concert itself had a Sunday feel to it (so why was it on a Monday?)... A bit of free improvisation, a tad anarchic, but with some structure, short and sweet...

Commissioned

This time I was commmissioned to do a series of photos for a British artist. So the idea behind this one is not mine (for a change), but it is an idea developed by Deej Fabyc. I was just trying to capture her ideas, to the best of my abilities... I must say that it was a strange but good experience... It was the first time I was explained what sort of a photo was needed and tried to make it happen. So now, all I can do is hope I did a good job.

Off the set...

...while on the set. If you get it?

On the set

Day 3. Do you think the actress is fed up with me, or is this a shot from the film?

Nobody

said singing was easy...

Quarter to two

All the time. Wherever. Whenever. Stuck on repeat... In the same moment, in the same waiting room. Exits all around, but all have been walled up ...

Zeitkratzer

played for us... They played some Cage (Nine), some Stockhausen (Aus den Sieben Tagen) and some of their own songs... And as these things go... the parts you like you really like, the parts you don't make you want to run out of the concert hall resembling Munch' scream (well that happened just once during the concert - when the string section was creating the noise that makes all your hairs stand up - just like nails scratching down a blackboard)... Over all there were much more bits I really liked, and the drummer seems to have had a good time...

Back to the roots

I returned to the place where I started taking concert photographs. During the year it is a rather quiet place (with quite a few events, but still it seems quiet), but in the summer it livens up. Fully. & utterly. They have a one month concert/dance/theatre/exhibition festival that is free for all :) And it was at this festival that I started taking photographs of concerts... way before I had a digital SLR... I had a 3.2 MP Fuji compact... but look where that took me... After years of photographing just in that one month in the summer, I now cannot imagine myself without a camera (neither can anybody else really)... (but can't quit my day job as yet)
So I returned to the place and had the special treat (so I heard) to hear the first public performance of the band... That does not happen that often, does it?
(And the photo shows the joy of the singer when the concert was over)

Toying

and trying to take a picture of how I experienced the concert and not how it looked like....

Bringing

... the five day festival to the end... And for a change I am not going to focus on the front(wo)man, but on the band (or at least somebody from the band)...

Hopefully

this photo will be good enough for my friends who wanted to go but could not and because of that they asked me to take such good photos that when they will look at them it will be as if they were there...
So? Whatdoyathink? Any idea what the concert was like?

Playing

a good bassline.

This is why...

... I like going to live performances and taking photographs (well one of the reasons).
You see so many people enjoying what they do... having a real good time and sharing this with others. And probably if society was not quite so screwed up, there would be much more of this (people enjoying themselves) and much less of (as I heard today on bbc radio) quantum leaps in people with depression in the UK (and elsewhere). So there... I will declare today Suncan's international day of go out there and have fun and make somebody else laugh (or smile, if the person turns out to be a real tough cookie) otherwise known as the 'Don't worry, be happy' day.
We will start with one day, and then see how it develops, OK?

Certainly

haven't seen you in a long time. From the Jazzbina times. So we are 10 years older, and I have not got any wiser...

A promise is a promise

is a promise is a promise....
As I made a promise at the rehearsal that I intend to keep, this is the only photo you will see from it at the moment...

PuuurrfeeectT

After two days of pottering the days away in the sun, not needing to think about anything at all, the weekend ended with a play and a drink with friends. So simple. So good. With a weekend like this who needs Mastercard?

The joy of freedom

or doing nothing... or doing only daft things... taking daft photos... smiling. relaxing.

You have no idea...

... how good it is to go for a drink with your mates and not be worried about how much you need to do the next day... Well, you probably have, but it might have slipped your mind... Finally, after a bit more than a fortnight, I will have a day off... Not one, but two :)