Archive for June 2010

Yamandu Roos Shoots for Uruguay

Sunday, 27 June 2010 Comments Off



Dunno 'bout you, but I'm rooting for Uruguay...


... if only because the longer they're in the running, the more images my boy Yamandu Roos gets to take in the cities, townships and stadia of S. A.


Yamnadu is there hanging with the Uruguay team - doing a project with his father for Uruguayan TV.


When he's not rolling with the team, it's obvious that he's extending the geographical reach of his Europeans project ( just a little).



There's always a subtlety and painterly nature about Mandu's work...



His images never totally reveal themselves at first glance - it has 'cool' media qualities as McLuhan would say.



The same quality of attention he invests in his ongoing Europeans is also evident here.


What's captured in the portraiture for example, is a capacity to edit with his eye and a response...



...the response of the subject to him - the conversation, the way he's engaging with them during or just before the picture is taken.


You get a sense of him, of his energy in every image. It's the same maybe with all great photographers.


(click on image to enlarge).



Shangaan Electro

Friday, 25 June 2010 Comments Off

Pure Joy.


...initially it sounds disjointed, like two tracks laced together - badly, but keep going...a few bars in and the inherent syncopation comes to the fore, and you're hooked..!





It's the sound of the Nozinja Studio in Soweto - where Africa reclaims dance music as its own...again.



These tracks, recorded over a three year period, now feature as part of an album released on Honest Jon's Records.



Thanks to Ruby from the Firm for the headz up.

LE JOUR D'APRES / SIKU YA BAADAYE (INDEPENDANCE CHA-CHA)

Tuesday, 22 June 2010 Comments Off

Pure Joy.

...like a mix between Marvin Gaye's I Want You LP cover, some classic party images from Malick Sidibé (imagine them colourised Andrew Dosunmo-style), interspersed with some funky David Lynch-type action...and much more besides.

& it sounds good too.


LE JOUR D'APRES / SIKU YA BAADAYE (INDEPENDANCE CHA-CHA) from BALOJI on Vimeo.


The Watch-strap Saga...

Sunday, 20 June 2010 Comments Off

Went slightly crazy last time I was in the States and bought loads of Brooks Brothers watch-straps - as you do.

Got home and realised I had way more straps than watches.


So, in the pursuit of balance, started buying more watches - cool army watches, nothing too glamourous or expensive...

Why wear a watch only to have it constantly covered by overlong cuffs? I thought to myself.

So...I began folding the cuffs on my shirts in order to let the watch on my wrist 'breathe' so to speak.
In the pursuit of balance I folded both cuffs...of course.

Then I realised that the cuff on my watch-less wrist looked too short as a result of being folded.

I look like I have one arm longer than the other! I thought to myself.

So...in the pursuit of balance I added a watch-less watch-strap to my other wrist...

One strap doesn't really do the job, I thought.

So I added another...I'll just take some of these straps off these new watches and I'll wear a different combination each day, I thought.

I end up wearing three watch-straps - one with a watch on my left wrist and two without a watch on my right...

Sure I know this may not seem particularly balanced to most people but trust me that was the best I could do.

So, anyway, then I thought to myself, Mmm, now I've got all these cool watches without straps...!


Need I go on?




Foot Patrol Returns

Saturday, 19 June 2010 Comments Off

No, you're not seeing a ghost, this isn't some weird time-warped apparition from a few years back - this is real and this is now.

Foot Patrol, the Soho sneaker store which originally opened in 2002 and gave impetus to sneaker culture on a global scale has returned.


Opening in about a months time, along with a choice selection of tier-zero shoes they'll also be selling a limited amount of clothing...


While the overnight queues of frenzied collectors may occur less and less these days, if any store is likely to define the emerging shape of sneaker culture, you can bet it's gonna be these guys.

Foot Patrol, Berwick Street, Soho.

Compared To What - recorded live June 1969

Friday, 18 June 2010 Comments Off



This is an epic track from an epic album, Swiss Movement recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival on the third weekend of June, 1969.

It features Les McCann, Eddie Harris, Benny Bailey, Leroy Vinnegar and Donald Dean.

It was recorded a month or so before the first landing on the Moon, and a couple of months before Woodstock.

It was written in 1963 by Gene McDaniels the same year John F Kennedy was assassinated.

Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.

Both Reverend Martin Luther King and Senator Robert F Kennedy were assassinated in 1968.

By this point America was almost 15 years deep into the Vietnam War.

Very much like the Stones' Sympathy For The Devil which was released in 1968 this song continues to resonated the sense of conflict and disillusionment of that time...

On listening to the lyrics it soon becomes evident that Compared To What is almost as appropriate today as it was back then.

Trying to make it real compared to now.

Playboy Chukka Boots: a speculation

Saturday, 12 June 2010 Comments Off

Who can say?

Who can confirm that the pair of Playboys perched outside Blackmans on Chester Street are the same classic chukka boot as worn by McQueen in Bullitt...

...as favoured for their simplicity and robustness by Ivy-inspired stylers the world over...

....as made by the great British shoe firm Sanders & Sanders...?


Who indeed.


They look and feel like all of the above. Of that much I'm sure.

But there's no tell-tale branding - which makes me unsure.

The gentleman in Blackmans can only confirm the price. £29.99.


Despite all these questions there's a voice in my head which keeps whispering:

Speculate to accumulate...Splash the cash...Speculate to accumulate...Splash..

Mmm - they even sound like playboys.

the granny shopper

Saturday, 5 June 2010 Comments Off

Cool Mother-In-Laws are like a contradiction in terms - or so I've been told - which is probably why my Mother-In-Law, Mrs Lucille Martin never fails to surprise me. She's in her eighties now, and when you consider that she was a child evacuee during the London Blitz, was hanging out in Soho coffee shops as a teenager in the mid fifties and a mum in the sixties, it's quite amazing that she consistently manages to pick out gems like this bag - for me.

She got it for me in Brighton, hanging out with her daughter Dr Mandi Martin for the long weekend just gone...I've used it every day since. 100% Polyester and made in China, it folds into a handy purse size square.

Obviously inspired by the classic Longchamp Le Pliage, I call it a Granny Shopper, since it's the kind of accessory you often see grandmothers carrying their essentials in. My essentials - Macbook, iPod, Moleskine notebook and a copy of Free & Easy all fit in perfectly....there's even a small Blackberry-friendly pocket in the front.

Through my teens and twenties, people used to accuse me of dressing like an old man, now they can say I'm dressing like an old lady.

The Nod: Liverpool Street

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introducing: The Nod

Friday, 4 June 2010 Comments Off

definition: a subtle and spontaneous recognition between two or more men based entirely on codes of dress and the mutual approval thereof. Rarely conspicuous to others (outsiders) it is a non-verbal expression; there is often no other form of communication before or after this split-second exchange.

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