Happy new year people! Kicking off 2019 with some hopeful positivity…
(Normal service will resume next week)
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This week’s photographs were all on the theme of isolation.
And this will be my last post for the year, so hope you have a lovely break over the holidays. And even though we are surrounded by doom and gloom, I think its always worth remembering the following:
If you have a roof over your head you are winning
If you have food on your plate you are winning
If you have people in your life you are winning
If you have love in your life you are winning
Survival is victory. You exist, you are winning.
Everything else is just details…see you in 2019!
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Sunday. 22:42. Loft Party, Dalston
Every shot this week was taken on a night out last week. As the Cameo track Word Up goes, “Wave your hands in the air, like you don’t care”. Larry Blackman was singing this in the 80s and this declaration suited those times and in some ways that is exactly what has been happening ever since but things feel a little bit different now. I do care and I am concerned but I’m still waving my hands in the air. In all honesty being out and having fun these days seems somewhat at odds with what is currently going on, both in this country right now and globally for what the future holds for us. There really doesn’t feel like there is anything much to celebrate but still we carry on, pretending as if there was. We ‘party on’ to escape the horror because it feels there is nothing else to be done. But it is starting to feel like a very surreal and conflicting experience, the euphroria of a night out squarely at odds with the current anxiety of the day to day.
The ‘real world’ never made a lot of sense to me but squeezing as much fun as you could out of life and living a hedonistic existence always did. Mainly because its when you get to experience people at their happiest and most interactive. It maybe stimulant induced but it doesn’t take away the fact that on nights out you find people come towards each other rather than edge away and (mostly) bring out the best in each other, guard down, prejudices locked away, revealing open souls who want to join as a connected collective, if only for one night.
And what unites people every single time is music. On a lot of the nights out last week I have shown you photographic snipets of, I was not really feeling in the mood when I first went out but invariably I would hear a track and it would lift my spirits, it would bring me back from the pit of despair, it would inject me with life and positivity. One of those tracks was “From Disco to Disco” by whirlpool productions (link) which 2manydjs played at the party I was at on Monday and I was sitting there, feeling pretty wrecked and flat and wondering what the fuck I was doing there and this song came on and in moments I was up on my feet dancing, without a care in the world, uplifted and happy.
I saw the Young Fathers on Tuesday just gone at Brixton Academy and having lived through the week of nights I have shown you in these pictures I was fairly dead on the inside and heavily flatlining. Within ten minutes of their gig, I was reinvigorated and energised, raised from the dead and brought back to life. A pretty impressive achievement which they delivered on and some. Young Fathers are so explosive live, they have such commitment and passion and always give nothing but there all, you cannot help but be swept up by their tide of enthusiasm. Their energy was enough to revive mine. They destroyed my apathy, annihilated my depressed mood. And all just through the power of their music.
Music makes me feel that there is a way forward, its just not the path we are currently on. But the fact that it exists and the effect that it has gives me hope for the human race. And if we could just get the c****s out of the way we would probably be fine.
The problem is that while a lot of my generation saw what the world was really about and said ‘fuck it’, I don’t buy that bullshit, I don’t want to be a part of it, I’m going to go out and have a ton of fun instead, which was fine, but while we were doing that, other members of our gen have been steadily dismantling our society, accumulating all the wealth and power for themselves and we have let them. Our absence and failure to engage left a vacuum that they were able to exploit. Maybe it would have happened anyway, but can’t help feel disappointment that we did nothing to stop them as everything that has gone wrong has happened on our watch. And now its all pretty heavily fucked and it feels that there is literally nothing left to do except to get fucked and watch as the world burns. So guess its business as usual then…as Jim Morrison so wisely once said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen man, but I want to get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.” Amen Jim. Actually thinking about it, it didn’t really turn out too great for Jim so mebbe not the best person to listen to…we need a postive role model to lead the way….any suggestions?
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Saturday 12.10am. City of London
These ladies were out on a night out, supposedly to have a good time but spent almost the entire duration of their evening doing back to back photo shoots, endlessly reviewing and repeating, searching for the ultimate shot to post. I did a post recently on ‘selfie girls’ (https://babycakesromero.com/myldn-1156/) and this was one of the most relentless examples I have seen. Inbetween they were glued to their phones, their digital existence dominating their real life experience to such an unnatural degree it left no space for anything else. They should have been having fun but they didn’t look like they were. In fact, they barely interacted beyond their discussions over the documentation of a night that didn’t really exist in any real sense.
Ironically they didn’t seem to care what anyone in the room thought of them (who actually barely noticed them because they also were on their phones) but they would undoubtedly care how they would be received and perceived by their online followers, many of whom they wouldn’t know and would never meet…Digi 1 Reality 0
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friday. 22:41. West London
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Thurs 6th 18:32 – Soho
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Monday 3rd: 1:32am
You will have to take my word for it but this is Charlie heaton who plays the older brother in Stranger Things doing a handstand on the dancefloor after a round of shots at a party at Laylow in West London. He was very excitable and highly exuberant.
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The policy of austerity which slashed council budgets in half over the last decade has forced them to close most of the youth clubs in an attempt to reduce costs with a severely depleted pot of cash. Over 350 have been shut down in last two years. As a result they have nowhere else to go and poor and disadvantaged youths are even more vulnerable now as a result. It has led inevitably to youngsters hanging out on the street which often and inevitably leads to delinquent behaviour and crime.
All Stars Gym, since it was founded in 1974 has proved a haven and a safe place for youth to go to when they have nowhere else. A place where they gain support, strength, discipline and can be made to feel like they are part of a community, part of a family. Boxing provides a focus for them where they previously might have had none and the coaches and volunteers who work there can fill a gap which, if left open, can become a gateway to the wrong path.
Sadly (and painfully predictably) it is under threat by property developers who are trying to force them out so they can build more luxury flats no ordinary people can afford to live in. As if there weren’t enough already. Luxury flat occupation still stands at roughly the 50% mark across London and establishments such as All Stars Gym, who provide an essential service in the community are being forced out for something that contributes nothing and destroys something in the process.
It sounds like the cliched plot of so many hollywood films, evil property developers try to squeeze out the community that were already there and they have to fight them to survive. In the movies the plucky young heroes always defeat them in the end but in reality that is rarely the case which is why we must come to their aid. And this is more than just about protecting a gym, it is about protecting connection points in our society that bring people together, that prevent us leading isolated lives, that remind us that we are all part of the same thing.
There used to be a piece of legislation that protected entities like All Stars from exactly this kind of attack. If you bought a building it used to have to retain the identity of that building. If it was a pub, it stayed a pub. A youth club had to stay a youth club, a gym a gym etc. The property developers lobbied government and made them take out this piece of legislation designed specifically to prevent everything that has happened since. Namely the relentless dismantling and removal of London’s shared spaces and community centres. Once they took out that single law they could do what they want and they have done exactly that ever since and London has and never will be the same as a result.
We must put this legislation back in if we want to prioritise people over profit. We must find leaders who are willing to stand up to these very powerful and wealthy corporations and put the needs of their communities first. Especially the members who need it the most. The kids who go to Allstars need Allstars. It is in integral part of their existence and gives them a lifeline they might not otherwise have. What has a property developer ever done for anyone other than themselves? The answer is nothing.
Allstars have been deliberately caught up in a legal battle by the developers who are trying to slowly snuff them out of the game. The landlord has deliberately not kept the building in good repair which means the charity cannot receive funding to help with the internal works. This has been used as a ploy to bankrupt AllStars by continually putting then in a position of going to court. Due to a technicality of such deviousness on the part of the landlord, the judge ruled costs against All Stars which is potentially ruinous. The landlords are clearly expecting them to be out of pocket and therefore unable to pay their next rent which is due as soon as the work is completed.
We must stop them and all those like them who continue to take apart the glue and fabric of our society and give nothing back. Cities suffer, they prosper. We have allowed them to get away with it for so long and now we must do everything we can to stand up to them and say no more.
Please look at their campaign and donate and share if you can…
https://www.givey.com/allstarsboxinggym
To see the full gallery please click here
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This week’s shots have all been taken on the night tube. I waited many many years for it to come into effect and am now very happy it is here as it was promised for so long and seemed like it would never actually happen. The first ever night it was on I was so excited to use it I stayed up all night at a friend’s party just so I could get it back. Unfortunately I slightly over-egged it and didn’t get on a tube until 8am which I realised wasn’t actually the night tube, it was the day tube starting again. I’d missed it by being too late which is a joke because the great thing about the night tube is that you are never late. It is always on. That is the beauty of it. No more rushing for the last train and having to cut your night short by several hours just so you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on a minicab.
And then uber came in and it was cheap and fast and then suddenly the night tube didn’t seem so important. And with the decrease in nightlife venues in central london it felt like the night tube might have arrived too little too late. And for the first few months it came into action I barely used it. I then got a regular weekend night job which meant that I started using the central line every Saturday night around 3am from east to west london. And so these shots that you have seen this week are all from that weekly late night/early morning journey.
There are only 5 things that really happen on the night tube..people are either passed out, eating mcdonald’s, being drunkedly loud, snogging or…and this is the weirdest one of all…talking to one another. And I mean stranger to stranger. The one thing that would never happen on the daytime tube in a million years is actually a regular occurrence on the night tube. People interact. Yes, undoubtedly fuelled by alcohol but still, its a wonderful thing.
I try to take at least one shot on every journey and have been doing so now for over a year and will show you more over time. Although it is quite tense and I actually feel quite apprehensive taking shots as everyone is drunk and you are in very close quarters so if you get caught taking someone’s picture there is nowhere to go if they have a problem with it. Fortunately with my stealth like ninjaness I have been able to get away with it thus far which is a relief.
The shot you see above you was shot around last xmas. We watched from the next carriage as this girl, in her Santa hat and micro black dress, proceeded to give a guy who was a total stranger to her, a lap dance in front of everyone. I have been travelling the underground all my life and I can safely say I have never seen that before. And I’m pretty sure neither had he. He followed basic lap dance rules which stipulate you can look but you can’t touch. I actually thought he dealt with it pretty well considering it can’t have been what he was expecting on his journey home.
And I guess that is the beauty of the night tube. If the daytime version is personified by its repetitive regularity, its nocturnal counterpart is defined by its unpredictability…
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