Bartolomy’s Diary

Here are some of the images from the Rockliffe Hall shoot, the lay out of the spread could have been done miles better. I am showing a few bits.

Been around, been away, watched the Dutch team, of course, on its way to the final (how is an entirely different matter…..), and did a few shoots:

I shot 4 pages fashion for Spindle, which came out nice, then shot May68 who came by my place. I am shooting Chief today and there’s two more acts later on this month of which Eliza Doolittle is supposed to be one of them, we shall see…..

Believe it or not I am slowly working on a new website which will have pretty much everything nested inside one nice site but first I am concentrating putting a book together on The Kiss.

Went to Holland early June to hook up with some mates from the army days (20+ years ago), Richard Meerding and I met early on Saturday, after not seeing each other for almost 20 years and in the blazing sunshine we hung out at the army base of the air mobile brigade in Schaarsbergen (near Arnhem) where we just drank beers and chatted and chatted……many memories later we decided to retreat to our hotel where more drinking ensued from which it was easily to move back to our rooms.

Then Terri and I went to Crete again, this time all 5* treatment at the Capsis Resort Out Of The Blue in Agia Pelaghia. Places like this are meant to keep you inside as much as possible. We went only on a couple of trips where we specifically wanted to go to, such as the nunnery @ Moni Savvathianon which was an oasis of peace and very well kept convent. So many flowers, just a joy to walk around. A few days later we went to the village of Anoghia, this village suffered badly when the Germans exacted revenge for the abduction of their second in command General Kreipe. Here the men mostly wear black, the younger ones wear camouflage pants as well, even though they look tough (and they are….) they still approach you and talk to you. We had lunch there @ their main square and it was great to be away from the pampering for a bit, but not too long though

Other than that the pool, and reading WW2 books (about Crete of course).

All I have been listening to is a lot of Nevemore. I went to see them live at the 02 academy, and I hated Warrel Dane’s performance, laughing it all off a little too lightly (his voice not being right and royally screwing up the second take of the video recording of “Emptiness Unobstructed”, hate that song btw, sounds like it is catered for the German market. Their new album “The Obsidian Conspiracy” is good, it has some decent songs on it (”And The Maiden Spoke”, “She Comes In Colors” and the title track). But some real stinkers too: “Without Morals” and “Emptiness Unobstructed” are really weak.
I only want 120 minutes of shredding, nothing else:-), to me Jeff Loomis is the star of that band.
I seriously doubt whether Warrel Dane can handle the Sanctuary material he is about to play. Time will tell.

The Kiss in Aghia Pelaghia

I started to watch the series Breaking Bad, on recommendation of my brother in law David Potasnick, I must say it is fun to watch, in short mix Weeds and Dexter together and you get a close feel as to what it’s like.
Then I also started watching Treme (pronounced Tri-May), the new series by the guys who brought The Wire. The first ep it is kind of hard shaking of some the actor’s characters they played in The Wire, but after that, some intelligent drama that takes its time to develop its characters.

Movies: Unthinkable (a nasty piece of crap with S. Jackson); Hot Tub Time Machine (a John Cusack flick that started to be cool for the first ten minutes and then got mullered by the empty suits that hold the strings of the purse…I want my 90 minutes back!!!!), Green Zone, another time waster, doe snot even come close anywhere with the Bourne stuff, as a matter of fact it is run of the mill BS, avoid!!!!

Today I took a dozen pix of Zoe Brown @ Profile Models for a possible shoot. Like this shot

Here is Robert Brunner from last December @ The Design Museum.

Some flowers from god knows when, I love the nuances that only film can give you:

I was in Holland for a week, only came back on the third, it was hella cold there, sort of like it is here now
I just hung with my family and took a few shots, it was just too cold to stay outside (I know I am soft) but the glorious sunlight made up for that.
This week is quiet but next week I am supposedly to go to France for a few days.

Was for three days in Belgium, mostly arround Zele and Lokeren and the final day spent some time in Brussels too. Jochen Maes, and old pal of mine was getting married to his lovely missus Nathalie and guess who was shooting the wedding…….. I had a great day, the people (Belgians know how to enjoy themselves) entertainment,food and drink was top notch, a day to remember no doubt. The next day we spent lazing and grazing, and on Sunday we hung about in Brussels, nice city.
A few pix:

During my travels I managed to catch a few couples for The Kiss as well:

Then I shot Pens for Ponytail, they are on a American tour as we speak. I thought the girls were easy going, no airs at all, the pix were done rather quick. Hopefully I catch them live at the end of Sept.

Martin Tomlinson of Selfish Cunt was someone I always wanted to take a portrait of. Ponytail Magazine gave me the oppetunity to do so, sadly Selfish Cunt is on hold (Under Review as Martin called it…) and he is having his fingers in various musical pies right now.
Martin was an extreme pleasure to deal with, a gentleman, and totally the opposite from the Selfish Cunt persona he displays on stage, he tells me he is much calmer now, oh sure
I took some shots at his flat in Primrose Hill in the beginning and also when we came back and sandwiched them with a pleasing result and the rose he sniffed was just outside Regents Park.

Terri and I left for three days to Holland again as well, and I snagged a couple on the platform, my first Dutch Kiss picture.
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I am doing post production on a shoot called INFERNO, I shall post some results soon.

The second show of Doll and the Kicks was a lot better, it sounded right and on stage it just looked better, still room for improvement but overall it made me forget Sunday night’s performance.

The Troxy and the two Brixton shows I had 3/4 songs to shoot the band, Ross Halfin is right when he says “You don’t get anything within 3 songs”, I have some pix that I like but overall the harvest is too bloody meagre, and I am too old to spend my time travelling, waiting and then get three songs for the privilege.
I also fail to understand why we get chucked out and punters in the crowd can just zap away with their compacts (some of them can be as powerfull as my digi camera from 4 years back and you can easily make A3 prints from it) for the whole set, and they stand a few feet behind me………

I gave up shooting the third and final show, add on I had to pack for my trip to Holland that same evening. There’s no point pursuing/following/portraiing people if you are kept at arms length.
That’s why there’s papparazzi’s…….. :-0

Holland; Teri and I left last Thursday for Holland just before 5am to get on an early flight to Eindhoven.
The right wing engine, where we happen to sit next to, made the noise of something very amiss.
The pilot decides to call out the engineers and they end up replacing the starter motor (always a good thing when you are about to leave…….) so we sit all patiently for about an hour with the AC off, and it does get hot inside the plane but no one uttered a word of discontent whatsoever.

We arrive in the pouring rain, it gets even better when you have to walk 150 meters over the tarmac to get to the building and arrive completely soaked.
Welkom in Eindhoven…………………..

Meanwhile I went for a run, the first in 9 months, boy oh boy my legs are like planks now……….