#MYLDN – Page 57 – Babycakes Romero

14/10/201614/10/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

To see the full gallery please click here

I have been walking with the undead on world zombie day for the last three years and I have to say they’re the loveliest bunch of people you could hope to meet. Its a strange oxymoron but its always the biggest freaks and the oddest looking bods that are the nicest types. The ones who wear their darkness on the outside are not the ones to be scared of. Its the ones who look like norms but who have a horror show on the inside who are the ones to really be afraid of. This lot were puppy dogs. Albeit covered in decaying flesh and gashes but puppy dogs nonetheless.

The zombie numbers have dwindled year in year out but it has made us a tighter community. Now that there are slightly less of us we have bonded more. I actually chatted to a lot of fellow zombies this year. Good people. Drew and lynne. lovely couple. The woman who had tiny little zombie hands coming out of her pregnant bump. Ever so nice. The Feldmans (on the right of this photo) – super friendly, see them every year.

As for the bystanders, the passersby who stumble across our hoard of PLs (Post Lifers – that is the term we prefer to use. We don’t like the Z word really. Unless we are saying it to each other then its ok) their reactions range from disdain to joy to fear to I’m so dead on the inside (as oppose to being dead on the outside) I can’t even acknowledge what I’m looking at. I really think you can actually really judge a person based on how they react to a zombie.

There is something strangely liberating about pretending to be dead. Its the thing we all fear the most and when you try it on for size its really not so bad. Maybe if it was permanent it would be and I guess that’s the biggest drawback of death. Its pretty fucking permanent. Once you do it you never get to do anything else and that sucks but maybe being dead for it a bit is going to soften the blow when it does actually happen. This is my theory. Please don’t shatter my illusions.

This year we experienced what I am calling the ‘social media singularity’ (yes I am trying to make that happen) which basically means when you are at an event and there are more people documenting than participating. Something which seems to be increasing in these content hungry era we live in. So we crossed the tipping point this time and there were finally more photographers there than Zombies. We were constantly surrounded by a big mob of SLR wielding camerapeople who descended on us like a rabid bunch of erm Zombies. Where is it all going to end? With photographers taking alternate shots of each other because there is no-one else actually left?

Anyways, I recommend pretending to be dead at least once in your life. You be surprised what a positive experience it can be.

13/10/201613/10/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

12/10/201612/10/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

11/10/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

10/10/201610/10/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

16/09/201615/09/2016

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Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

I went to the proms one night at the Royal Albert Hall (very la di da I know) but you can go up in the upper gallery for only six quid. You can lay out on the floor whilst listening to incredible classical music in what is probably the most stunning live concert venue in the country for an entire evening for little more than what you would pay for a pint these days. Its a great atmosphere and people take blankets and picnics with them.

Whilst up there I saw a guy sat up there who looked like he had been beamed down from the 40s although he looked like he was in his 40s so he must have been born in the 70s (confusing I know) and he also had this teddy bear with him which also looked like it had been around since the 40s. It didn’t seem to bother him that he was maybe a tad too old to be out with a teddy bear. He looked very happy, unlike his companion who looked very miserable.

So why no photos this week?

During the month of August I don’t post anything as its nice to have a social media break but for the first time ever I also didn’t take my camera out with me for the entire month either. It was tough at first as it has been a clean decade since I’d left the house without it but after a while it became truly liberating. We have all become slightly obsessed with documentation and to be out and not have that as an option was an unimagined pleasure. To be somewhere and just live it rather than thinking about how it could be captured and packaged was truly joyful. And the longer it went on the more I wanted to stay in ‘living’ mode.

The scenes I have (badly) drawn for you this week are moments where I would have killed to have my camera with me but all I could do was observe, not capture. But maybe because I absorbed the situation fully and not through a lens means that maybe they will stay with me longer. Apparently if you take photos at an event you are much less likely to remember them as the brain assumes the machine has it covered. This is possibly why my memory is totally shite (nothing to do with lifestyle choices whatsoever, no siree)

I love taking photographs more than anything and it is a compulsion that I can’t see myself abandoning but am fully aware we are drowning in content, relentlessly bombarded and we do our best to plough through it and consume as much as we can whilst making our own contributions. and I am a relatively heavy content provider so know I am part of the problem and definitely not part of the solution but I feel we have to flag it up now and again or we will lose perspective on what is actually important.

So what to do? Live or document? The answer is obvs a matter of balance. We mustn’t sacrifice the former for the latter. Choose your moments and live the others.

please note: normal photographic service will resume next week.

15/09/201614/09/2016

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Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

Brixton Market transforms itself (well, not on its own…with aid of people obvs) into a nitelife world full of bars and restaurants. On a hot night you feel like you are on holiday and the vibe is fantastic. It is a magnificent use of the space, time sharing the location to create a truly great dual purpose existence, the likes of which I have not seen since the daytime cafe/nighttime tandoori closed on Portobello Rd.

There was a dj set up in one of the alleyways next to the pizza joint who had what could only have been his mum on FaceTime who he proceeded to show the event to throughout his set whilst receiving what could only have been selection choices. It was bizarre to say the least.

14/09/201614/09/2016

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Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

The Strand. One Thursday afternoon. The guy carrying the sign looked angry. It was as if he was somehow annoyed by the statement he was carrying through the streets but felt compelled to share it nonetheless. Traffic swerved to avoid him as he marched down the road which he was seemingly oblivious of, as were the passersby of him, which was slightly odd because he was carrying a 6ft by 4ft giant yellow sign. I think possibly they were just scared and trying to avoid eye contact as his enraged expression insinuated he might blow at any moment. It was as if he thought others should also die ‘for our sins’ and he would gladly help. I didn’t personally feel like making that sacrifice and edged ever so slightly away from him as he past me…

#nophotoweek

13/09/201613/09/2016

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Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

Some kid’s plush stuffed bunny toy lay abandoned on a high street pavement in the rain. Its reflection shimmered & distorted on the wet concrete slabs. The drab and dirty rabbit looked forlorn and depressed, as I imagined was its owner without it.

I saw the kid in his room, tears rolling down his face, unable to be placated by parents who may or may not have cared. Was one of them out there on the streets diligently retracing their steps as the other one held their kid tight in their arms or were they in front of the telly, oblivious to their child’s misery? Maybe the kid was a brat and had hurled it onto the street in a fit of rage over some rejected demand? Maybe the rabbit was saved from its curbside fate, rescued by someone who just wanted to give it a good home? That someone wasn’t me by the way. I don’t have the bunny if that’s what you’re wondering. I just stepped over it like all the other passing pedestrians whilst contemplating the possible scenarios leading up to its arrival and departure…some of which I share with you now.

why #nophotoweek? explanation on friday…

12/09/201612/09/2016

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Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

Frank’s bar is located at the top of a carpark in Peckham. I went there on a hot summer’s friday night and it was teeming with literally hundreds of people and has one of the most incredible views of London I have seen. And it was proper buzzing. Amazing vibe in a supercool location, although it did take me three trains to get there…which leads me to…

Nowadays when you are in central london at night in places like Soho where the streets were once full of life and are now dead you can’t help but wonder where all the people went and then you come out to a place like this and you go, ahhhh, THIS is where everyone is. Now I understand.

When excessively high rents forced the majority of Londoners out of London a lot got dispersed here there and everywhere but in some places such as Peckham in the South, Walthamstow in the north and Clapton in the East people actually recongregated & built new happening areas, just a lot further out. I grew up in the London suburbs and when I was young your only mission was to claw your way into the middle of the city, get as far in as you can ‘cos that was where all the life was. This seems to have been turned on its head and now everyone (due to financial factors) is heading to the outskirts. Didn’t see that coming…

P.s If you are wondering why this is a drawing and not a photograph, please stay tuned, all will be revealed at the end of the week.

09/09/201609/09/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

To see the full gallery “Blocked Party” – please click here (no pics apart from one above featured in this weeks post)

The only news story you will ever read about the Notting Hill Carnival after the event is how many arrests there were. It is the only angle the mainstream media ever project. This year there were around 400 or so arrests. Massively up on last year. The reason? They gave police permission to do random stop and searches so that’s how they got their quota up and now there’s been an increase in violations the carnival is now up for review. What a surprise. It seems they would do anything they could to end it, I just think they don’t know how to.

If you have been you will know it can be one of the most joyful events on the planet. Mass daytime street dancing – its about as positive as the human race gets. It is us at our best. Yes people get wasted. Yes they make a mess but its only for 2 days out of 365 and we all need to let off a bit of steam now and again or else we’ll explode. They describe the behaviour as ‘anti-social’ but its the most social experience you could be a part of. Every walk of life, every age group, nationality and ethnicity all dancing to the same beat…sorry, what was the problem with this again? Which bit of that don’t we like?

There will always be a tiny element, that attend that are looking for and cause trouble. If you take the amount of attendees (roughly a million) compared with the amount of arrests it equates to 0.04%. Why should the focus be on them when the rest are celebrating life? We could look at the positives, we could see the overall good as oppose to the minuscule bit of bad. We choose what we think about. That is what shapes ourselves and the world we live in. You always have a choice and as Renton so succinctly put in Trainspotting: Choose Life. Choose Carnival (well he didn’t actually say the last bit, I did, obvs)

One of the my favourite moments of Carnival is on the thursday before as they do a steel drum rehearsal on All Saints Rd. It used to be on at the Tabernacle on Talbot Rd but they had to move it because of complaints from the neighbours. Just to put that in perspective – its on at 8pm for 2 hours once a year and is one of the most uplifting sounds on Earth – how twisted and bitter and joyless to you have to be to want to put a stop to that? I never understood why the Quiet always get the last word? They should be quiet! (That’s irony by the way folks). Just because they might have given up on living doesn’t mean we have to…

08/09/201608/09/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

07/09/201607/09/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

06/09/201605/09/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

05/09/201605/09/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

29/07/201628/07/2016

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

This will be my last post for a bit. I am taking off August as I usually do, cos its the European way and technically we are still in Europe so I will be taking advantage of their ambivalent attitude to working in the summer whilst I still can.

August used to be known as the silly season for news as not that much used to happen as everyone went away. The way things are going at the moment I’m not sure that will be the case. Everyday seems to be the silly season. Insanity and hatred seem to have consumed people all over the globe and barely a day goes by when you don’t read about some horrendous atrocity but we mustn’t give in to hate.

As we all know (thanks to the biggest franchise on the planet) beware the dark side, it will consume you. Even if you hate the haters you’re still a hater. As someone (can’t remember who, someone clever and quotable clearly) so astutely noted: “there’s always a lot of hate at anti-hate rallies”. And so, at the risk of sounding like a hippy, love, understanding, communication and cooperation are the only ways forward. Anything that involves violence can’t possibly be a solution to violence. Just cos the world has gone bonkers doesn’t mean we have to join it.

Enjoy the rest of your summer – see you in sept! x

28/07/201628/07/2016

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