Malden Fortnight; Day of Performance, Craft Fair, Korean Food Festival and Unilet Expo 11 BBQ

This is shaping up the be a busy weekend, I can feel my eyeballs falling out. I'm working 12-4 tomorrow as part of the Funday Sunday event in Beverley park and I shot a bunch of events this afternoon. Then I have this job interview at 10am on Monday, all of this activity requires much more sleep than I am currently getting.

So today I shot Jenny Hunt's Day of Performance, the Craft Fair, the Korean Food Festival and the Unilet Expo BBQ, before returning to St George's square to shoot more of the dancing.
Here are my favourites from today, a full set can be found here. I've snuck in a few shots that were more for personal enjoyment and you may recognise a few faces, either from last week or last year.

















All the images I've taken so far should be featured in the photo gallery on the Malden Fortnight website soon.

I think I'm calling this one out as my overall favourite, all she wanted to do was dance.

Post-Glasto Laze.

We made good time today.

The 'film' has taken up most of my 8GB memory card. I'll start editing and whittling when I get back to Surrey on Wednesday I think. I also managed to shoot some film.

Glastonbury was great. I was definitely lulled into a total false sense of security last year. However, despite the incredibly strange, not to mention changeable weather, overall I saw some great music and had a nice time. I think Sunday was my favourite day because there was a lot of sitting down involved. I managed to survive the mud and didn't fall over! I did however lose my welly once, which was horrible but I got rescued by a stranger pretty quickly so it wasn't too bad.
I actually hate wellies now, I hope the next festival that I get myself to doesn't involve them (there isn't another Glastonbury until 2013, and judging by the state of the farm, it doesn't surprise me). I'm glad I snapped up my snazzy calf-length starry wellies from Office for £15 though because they were pretty comfy for what they were, and despite the fact I hate them.

My favourite acts of the festival were Mumford & Sons (of course), Paolo Nutini, Kaiser Chiefs and Beyonce. Coldplay put on an amazing show in terms of visuals though and despite not knowing many Elbow songs I think they were my overall favourite for crowd interaction. I pretty much enjoyed every band that I saw the whole festival. I also saw, The Midnight Beast, Ed Sheeran - who also had a brilliant crowd and sounded beautiful, Dry the River, The Joy Formidable, TV on the Radio, Eels, Ok Go and Those Dancing Days. I also managed to catch the end of Tinie Tempah and Bombay Bicycle Club, neither of which I'm great fans of but they both seemed to sound 'CD-quality'. I also saw Robin Ince, as per annual tradition.
I didn't manage to see U2 because I was too cold and wet by that point, but that's what iPlayer is for.

I guess it's back to reality now because once Glastonbury is over, despite the hype, it's over.
Stay tuned for some photographs and videos, it may take a while though because I'm covering Malden Fortnight again this coming weekend.

(Source: Glastonbury Festivals)

Dear Wireless,

You're child's play compared Glastonbury, which is obvious but when it's taken into account that you're also getting major names, you could at least make the rest of the festival interesting.
Also, please sort out the filth.
All the best, Ruth.

For all the criticisms I could talk about, I don't think I'll be returning anyway, so here are some photographs I took. Enjoy my disgusting feet.

These were some kind of luxury toilets/bathrooms, £3 to use a 'nicer' toilet, £3 to have your hair done and £5 to do both. Seems pretty pointless as you're only there for a day, and your hair can't be that bad, made me kind of annoyed, why did they have this and no awesome stalls?

Don't think that this quite demonstrates the extent of the dirt, but this was before I attempted to wash them.

She's amazing, I've got nothing else to say about her. Some of the papers talking about last nights performance have really annoyed me, I think it's quite amazing how they can completely change the context of things she says. Most of what she says seems to be a schtick, and it's obvious, and funny, that's what I think anyway.

'Empire State of Mind' was Jay Z's best song, the set on stage for it was amazing.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I've only just realised that 'O2 Wireless' is now 'Barclaycard Wireless', doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but the fact that the VIP area was sponsored by Vodafone now makes a helluva lot more sense.

Today is the first day I've woken up feeling fully rested, I guess the disappointment from Wireless really exhausted me. It's also the first day out of about 5 where I haven't felt rushed off my feet. It's alright, I still have enough to do.

Jamie T @ Southampton Guildhall: 02 February 2010.

Overall I'd probably give this around a 7/10, which isn't to say that the gig wasn't good, just that my experience was not as good as it could have been. Jamie T was on top form as always though, it's a pity that the audience didn't follow suit. Although considering who the support was, I'm not surprised they were slightly riled up, because this guy was a tosser.
He went by the stage name, Chester P and made almost no sense, what link to Jamie T that he had was quite weak and his act was definitely not enough to get us going. And that's leaving out the random mega quiet acoustic parts - performed by his cousins. I can't believe this guy was for real, and he gave up 'rapping' - for which he was accompanied by one of the aforementioned cousins - to preach to us about how corrupt everything is, well, obviously, but I'm here to enjoy music not be indoctrinated into Anarchy. So he was bad, if I hadn't wanted to be at the front for Jamie T, I wouldn't have bothered being early.


As I mentioned before, Jamie T himself was as good as when I'd seen him previous times, but as he kept saying it's 50-50 and if the crowd are a bunch of lairy morons, it's not going to make for the most wonderful experience ever. I nearly got strangled when a guy shoved me into Moon with his elbow. I have awoken this morning covered in bruises, were it for an appreciative crowd, I probably wouldn't have minded so much but any quiet song was met with talking over the top except by a select few, and the response was the same whenever there was a break between songs and Jamie T addressed us - the banter is one of the best things about his gigs and I hardly got to hear any of it, especially over a particularly inconsiderate idiot who threw a football shirt onto the stage and expected Jamie T to wear it ("Put the shirt on! SHIRT! SHIRT! SHIRT!") - why would he? This guy was persistent though, which is what was so annoying, he's also the guy that nearly strangled me.

My favourite part of the gig was when all the bottled got hurled at the stage, only because it reflected well onto Jamie T's personality. I'd be pissed off it stuff had been chucked at me an entire gig as well, so I'm glad that he let everyone completely loose and then put them down, just because of how horrible everyone was, they deserved it.



But I survived it, and I enjoyed the music, so even though my shoes and handbag were covered in chewing gum at the end of the night and I had beer all over me and I'm covered in bruises now AND I still don't know the name of the bassist in The Pacemakers, I had a good time.

I just hope that next time I see him it's more controlled (like The Roundhouse) or smaller (like The Wedgewood Rooms), I don't think I'd stand in the same place either, dead center is where all the idiots flock to.



One great thing about the lairiness though, a girl was singing really loud (and badly) in my ear for about two songs, then she disappeared.

Check out my 31st 365.

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!

The Walking with Dinosaurs arena show was tonight. It was amazing, much better than the adverts suggested and definitely worth the money I paid for it. I'm actually still overwhelmed by the fact that I wasn't ripped off and that I actually had a good day without it raining.
Saying that, it was mega hot today and was so humid in New Malden, a mist was actually forming, which was pretty rank.

But yeah, my love for dinosaurs continues. One failing was not allowing their flying dinosaur to fly around into the crowd but as it was only a minor part it's not that big a deal. I wasn't even that motivated for it this morning, but man I'm pumped.
It was fantastic.
Also, The O2 is quite nice, but a bit surreal as they've tried to make it look like a town... even though it's indoors...

Pictures soon.



http://www.dinosaurslive.com/

Links of the day.

https://crowdsurge.com/jamiet/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2009/artists/maccabees/

I just purchased pre-sale tickets for the Kings & Queens tour. ♥
By the end of this year I will have seen Jamie T live at least 3 times, that's ridiculous, I love The Maccabees far more, but it's all good.
I'm going to try and get some photos developed at the weekend. And will take a load tonight.
I am so excited!

FYI, I have no desire to ever go to Glastonbury, ever.

I'M REPTAR!!

I am currently obsessed with Walking with Dinosaurs, which, whilst involving buying The Sun, is brilliant. It's 10 years old and still impresses, which makes me horrifically angry about the epic fail that is Mega Shark VS Giant Octopus - I realise there could be a large difference in budget, but for film and a television series you wouldn't expect it to be that great and considering all the advances since 1999, you'd think an effort could have been made with MSVGO - but clearly not, I'm hating thrillers and horrors at the moment anyway though.


Here, have a photograph of some tasty breakfast.


I went down Albert Road today, it is really not very good, hopefully when the weather picks up I will take some more photographs, it's so gloomy, I'm not in the mood.

I'm trying to draw more... but I forgot my sketchbook for the near three hour long journey to East Grinstead for Moon's Fender interview yesterday.
Managed to get halfway through Rules of Attraction though, it's so good, I can't wait to start American Psycho.
I hope my tan stops fading. ☹