Bartolomy’s Diary

Well the woods were a bit of a let down, not much to see at all. besides that I have done my knee in badly, this has been lingering for the past two weeks (too much heavy lifting) and because of that I end up lying on the sofa watching the series Lost, now if anything is bloody overhyped then it sure as hell is this….
The things u want to know you wont, it drags on and on and on, it keeps going into flashback mode, giving us info I really could not give a damn about…..so then after watching 24 eps (!!!) I find out there is no real end….nope, series two is about to be screened in the US at the end of Sept. Complete and utter waste of time…..

Meanwhile I have shot about 20 shots, the total stands at 92 sofar. The nightime stuff is hard to get, simply as ppl do not sit on it after dark… I snagged one at 5:20 this morning, but sofar I only have about 4 shots.

Meanwhile, some shots of Jorinde de Mol, who has ended up becoming a TV presenter on Dutch TV (this I only found out just recently).
These were shot in Den-Bosch, Nl @ Harry’s big studio, in 1994.

Managed to snag a few nice shots on the bench yesterday, and the total is up to 72 (I have added three of today sofar as well….).
Sunny day today, me and da missus off to Hockley woods…………

I shot 9 more yesterday and have added them to the website.
I also sent some mails to some mates and the large majority of replies were positive. The negative ones came from Steve and from Stefan, I shall deal with you pigs later……………

Besides that I have been watching a new series called Over There, it is set in Iraq (present day) and it follows this squad of rangers, I think the Sgt. character played in ER before…and one of the African American blokes I recognise fom The Shield. I don’t know but really good it aint….there is quite a bit lacking, as much as they try to bring some reality to the screen, you know right away that “it would never happen like that…” springs into mind, in the back of your head you know it would be much much worse…….
Then again, if I am not mistaken this is brought to you by Fox, and this is about the worst channel ever unleashed on the airwaves….when Terri and I were in Bari, IT. earlier this year the only English news channel in the hotel room and boy does this channel talk a load of rubbish……

Today a bit of lazin’….farmer’s market in town, so gonna hog out on cheese and salamis….:)

Yesterday managed to snag 9 as well, so not bad. I will add four for viewing.
On top of that http://the-b3nch.com is alive and kicking and will be updated daily……new pix permitting. The project finishes when I have to move out back to London so roughly this will be Sept. 23rd if all goes according to plan.

I have worked on a few pix from the Leigh On Sea / Hadley Castle trip last weekend.

I shot 9 more yesterday, also the first one after darkness had set in……
today it is of to see Mustafa in Kent and pick up my prints, then to Hackney council and get some planning permission stuffz.
Then hopefully I can pick up my camera as well from Graham, as he has had it for more than 3 wks.
And if there is time and some effort left I may go out to parl. sq. and shoot a few pix of Brian.
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Well today it just rained….and no pix of Brian (as genius here forgot his camera battery, it was still in the charger).
Mustafa’s prints came out nice, and Hackney council can not find the planning permissions for the property we intend to buy……great.

As I screwed up w. the battery I get into Charing Cross in the afternoon and wander thru C. Garden towards Tottenham Ct. Rd., on the way on The Strand I walk into the Proud Gallery that was exhibiting Ross Halfin’s work. I know of his work since the early days when Kerrang! got started , as a matter of fact I know of his stuff from Sounds, which was before that. Anyways, I thought some stuff was really good…. the Chicago 2001 prints are exceptional, and so are the two massive blowups of The Who, they are great shots. Besides that, it sorta looks like a hurriedly put together exhibition and this could have been a real killer show, as I am well familiar with his work and many great shots are missing.
I then walk from that gallery to the photographer’s gallery, I tend to nosey in there for 5/10 mins when I am arround…..always good to see what is happening besides my own lil’ world and the work from Guy Pillem hits me like a ten ton hammer…….it is beautiful, it is seen thru the eyes of a westerner for sure, but striking nonetheless. The pix are shot in Zaire and mostly show western remnants of our culture and Mobutu’s palace’s (raided off course…). Go see it, it is free anyways.
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I love the kiss shot, it is blurred but it has a nice feel to it….

It started to be sunny yesterday first of all, and then by 10 am it started to chuck down like no other…..
I am still amazed I managed to snag six shots….I also included a shot I did on Sunday that I have overlooked (which is the top one…).
I bought a domain http://the-b3nch.com where I will have all shots posted…..

Tomorrow it is of to London and Sidcup to sort a few thingies out…..

Shot 8 more yesterday, besides that was away all afternoon till the early evening as Terri and I went to Hadley castle, we walked from the station and the ended up walking for miles, our guess was 7/8 at least…..slept like a baby afterwards….

Shot 10 more yesterday, by the way this is going, gonna have 100 at least…….ow

I have started a new project called “The Bench” nothing to mega original but great fun, and with some nice results sofar.
I am thinking of showing this to some arthouse peeps, mags and such……….. as we are staying here for another 4 weeks longer than anticipated I ought to get about 30 decent shots, I already have almost 10 that I am content with…
Here are a few shots over the course of last week.

The move has been delayed to Sept. 23rd, so that means another month of Essex and travel to London, wahey…..

Here are some flowers I shot this morning…..

Moving house is stressfull, really………., the ppl at the top of the chain are tryng to apply pressure and have our Aug. 26th moving date moved by at least a week, which we are not going along with as it would cost us a bundle of money (the mortage comp. for instance would charge an extra 75% for that mth) on top of that the paperwork will not be sorted till next Tuesday so it looks more than likely that we will be delayed by at least 3/4 weeks unless miracles happen and the peeps at the top start to compromise a bit………
And it looks now that we are not moving till arround the 20th of Sept.

Meanwhile here are three shots I did yesterday coz I was soo bored with all the phone calls regarding matters mentioned above……..first time I shot flowers digital.

Saw two films yesterday and both were great. The first one was Reconstruction http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366943/ which was odd story-wise, but made sense in the end. This film kept me on edge during the course of its run, and the second one was even better “Brothers” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386342/ , is topping my list of best films I have seen this year sofar. Great acting, awesome story, a film that deserves to be seen by a wider audience for sure.
I am adding some metal shots, which are the last batch of shots I had to scan for the metal section, unless my “lost” batch resurfaces…….

Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine 1986, Testment 1987, Vixen 1987, Annihilator 1993, Gorefest 1993, Kreator 1986, Mercyful Fate 1993.

Well Lightning Bug was just so so, just another white trash family movie………been done so many times……

Today scanning, pestering peeps with mails and phone calls, and trying to dig up certain pix which are needed badly. Having it all boxed up, and some in the attic doesn’t do me many favors either :-0

Here are some of Cherie, shot in 2001.

Chill and watch telly all day, end up watching some good films….
Intimate Strangers, a French film which had a nice story. Then I caught up with some docu stuff such as The New Al Qaeda, which was excellent and by the look of it we shall be dealing with these types for some time to come…. Going to watch a film called Lightning Bug, by the sound of it an American indie flick….we shall see….

Went to London yesterday late afternoon and hooked up with Andrew and Toby (of “The Band”), as we are making our way to Lee Fiorentino’s (Planitology Prod.) birtday partee at a tapas in Clapham North. Hadn’t been to Clapham in ages and it was good fun, the only sad thing was that we had to leave early to get a train back to Prittlewell. It still takes 2 hours door to door……also we had Ben and Sally come over for lunch at mid day. I cooked some Indoneasian dishes.
Also talked a few bits in regards “shaping” the Brain Haw movie project, about what direction to take it into….. And I am more interested in his personal ongoings than in his political, as most ppl that do know about it, do agree with him. But it takes a lot more to be out there in front of parliament for more than 1500 days, 24/7, come rain or shine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Discussed w. Ben about making some audio recording and ask him what he goes through. Hopefully we are going to do this in a few weeks time.
Here are some flowers

Left at 11, as I arrived a tad early in the West end I went by Selfridges and had a quick chat with james and Dread at the Metal Morphosis stand.
Then I had a meeting w. Amanda the AD of Shoo Mag., then met Andrew after that in Stoke Newington and hung arround for a couple of hours…
I went back to Soho to meet with Alex, a new stylist, I really liked her stuff, I hope we can do something in the near future.

Then I took the train to Sidcup, kent to see Mustafa who printed 15 shots on metallic paper (simply awesome !!!!!) thinking of doing all my books on this paper….
Then back to central london to photograph Brian, I hung arround for about 2.5 hrs…waited till it got dark as well, and that gave me some nice shots.
Undercover police came by while he was gone for 20 mins and started to move some of his signs…………..whatever. Got the train at Stratford and managed to get back to Prittlewell by 11pm………an eventfull day to say the least

Saw a docu on Robin Cook last night, it wasn’t bad at all….showed what a career screw-up; getting caught w. yer secretary romping can be……..still it is quite a loss….way too early to die at 59. Then watched an episode of league Of Gentlemen, series 2, very funny indeed.

Today it is “run around like mad” day……… meeting in Marble Arch at 1 with Amanda the AD of Shoo magazine, she and the editor Robina were well pleased with the pix, then off to Sidcup, Kent to pick my prints up, then back to the West End and meet Andrew Wills, then meet a new stylist and then some pix of Brian, quite a bit of travel actually……
Can’t wait to be be based in London again, starting to feel Essexfied………awriiiiiiiiiiiiiight………..

Did mainly work on the pc yesterday (scans) and sorting the shoe pix out. Today it is to finalize the shots that are to be printed up by Mustafa.
I am off to london tomorrow to have a few meetings and also pick my prints up and then prolly going to shoot Brian, feel guilty for not showing for 2 weeks.
Sarah London ‘98/Danielle Den-Bosch, NL ‘92/Laurence London ‘97

We got in the car by 10 am, and arrived at just before two in Reading, the M25 was completely blocked, well not completely but you get the idea……..
We had a meeting with Rae our solicitor to finalize paperwork…..and if all goes according to plan we shall be moving in approx 2 weeks…..fingers crossed.
We then hooked up with Andrew for a brief chat who will become our neighbour, also saw Toby (the one of “the band”……………) and then met one of the vendors and had a brief chat and had a good look arround the house, we hadn’t seen it for like 6/7 weeks…….it feels like the right thing to do…..

If you wish to see some pix, then go to:

Got on the train yesterday at 9 and managed to get o Peckham Rye for just before 11, in the meantime there are coppers everywhere…..even the smallest station has 3/4 of them, wonder how much this is costing…….
It seems that a lot of ppl are not taking the tube anymore, as they feel unsafe, do not blame them, but then again I need it for getting arround as the bus is way too slow to my liking, and it is as “unsafe” as the tube anyways…..just got to get on w. it……
We shot pretty much all day, first we did the white backdrop ones, and then we played arround a bit, the metallic stuff came out nice.

On the way back to Liverpool St. unreal how many police are there…. I count at least 30 (and those are the visible ones), I see several Asian and African males w. bags stopped and searched……life must be awkward for them to say the least.

Today it is rental car day and off to Reading to sign the paperwork and also meet the vendors later on tonight, will bring my camera to shoot some pix of our new home….

Saw Waterhole No. 3 last night after seeing Robbo. This is a light hearted western with James Coburn, easy to watch. Carrol O’Connor (dad from All In The Family) plays his sidekick.

Insurance, insurance and more insurance….. building, contents, life yada yada yada……..it pays off to get some quotes tho……You may spend one/two hours on the web and the phone, but there are many many options and also some good prices, starting to sound like a salesman so I better stop.

The new Nevermore “This Godless Endeavor”album really kicks arse, been listening to it all day, better get this on the mp3 player for my running sessions :-0

Scanning today and putting the finishing touches to the stuff that is about to be printed.

Here are some of Shilo, shot above Milano in 1992.

Saw Path To War ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218505/ ) last night, excellent film. Made by HBO (when are they setting up shop in Europe, they make the only worthwile tv to watch…..honest!!) it has Michael Gambon playing Lyndon Johnson (very convincing and looks a lot like him), Donald Sutherland, Alec Baldwin and a lot of other actors, which all have earned their spurs before, playing parts in other quality dramas.

Shooting on Thursday with Gillian, for Shoo Magazine (www.shoomagazine.com)….some stills of shoes and bags…this ought to be interesting. Also trying to shoot Brian later that day.
On Friday it is off to Reading to sign our lives away in regards the house, and hopefully we shall meet the vendors in Stoke Newington (Coke Newington as Russel Chipping would say…) later that day as well.

Spoke to Rob Snow as well last night, he is getting married on Oct. 15th and wants me to shoot the dinner and the party afterwards, sure, that is what i do best shooting a load of pissed up mates, no worries whatsoever :-0