Shaw House Summer Fête.

I feel like I started off the month really well with my photography but have kind of drifted a bit as the heatwave has taken hold. Like, I took much fewer photos a couple of weekends ago when we went to visit Shaw House for their summer fête than I would usually - maybe it's that, or maybe there just wasn't that much there to take pictures of.



Shaw House is another new Newbury discovery and I must say I was a little disappointed with it. It could have been much more than it was, the fête itself was quite nice but didn't make as much of space as they it could have. There were lots of nice places to picnic if we'd planned ahead though and we were able to get a couple of Pimm's for just £2.50 each, and there were nice wigwams to max-relax in.

At one point I believe Shaw House was a fancy boarding school before health & safety regulations decided it couldn't be anymore. I first took notice of Shaw House when they held their open garden events earlier this year when it was signposted everywhere. We gave them a miss but will definitely check them out if they hold them again, especially after reading about Jenny from Sunny Sweet Pea's great open garden experience.


If we learnt nothing else from our visit, it was definitely driven home that Moon is a 21st century man.


In all fairness the café was cute and reasonably priced, we just didn't fancy being indoors when it was 28° out.
I'm kind of sad to see that most of the inside of Shaw House is now mainly used as conference rooms. I really see it as a shame, but then maybe there isn't all that much history there to tell.

I'd love to hear about any historic buildings near you, have they made the most of them there?

Newbury Ablaze.

I'm genuinely relishing in doing absolutely nothing this weekend - except maybe making a den and cooking some pizza from scratch. I've been so busy this week that Newbury Ablaze feels like months ago rather than just last Friday - crazy! Anyway, on a whim, and because I'd heard about it on the *incredible* Newbury.net when looking for what was on, we took a lazy walk along the canal towards Victoria Park for the Newbury Ablaze fire festival.

It seemed that we were about as wise to the event as some of the more 'established locals', what exactly is a fire festival? In all honesty, I'm still not sure, all I know is that to celebrate 20 years of Newbury's Corn Exchange they created a showcase of sculptures and displays all down the canal, I swear Newbury is one of the weirdest towns...


It's such a shame that it's been a little too wet recently to do a bit more walking once work is over, especially as the days are getting shorter as it is.


Pretty set-up in the park.



Spinning fire sculpture.



Dotted around the edge of the canal with the fire sculptures were a few performers, this guy had a pretty wicked-sounding whistle.

It was a little bit culty, but it was quite pretty all lit up once the sun went down, there's something a bit hypnotic about fire sometimes and it was quite nice to be part of the community even if most of doing that involved quite a lot of queuing.
I posted a couple of videos that kind of demonstrate it a little better but I'd be interested to know if it's actually a 'thing' and if any other towns do it too? Other than bonfire nights, I've never really seen anything quite like it.

Locals.

One of the things I really enjoy about living in Newbury, aside from feeling pretty safe, there's a great sense of community. I relish in the ridiculousness of Britishness - the kind I was photographing for Malden Fortnight a couple of years ago. We some how stumbled on Newbury Carnival last weekend, there was a wicked parade with bagpipes and everything, it really made for a fun couple of hours.


I think they were selling children's hats, but not entirely sure, creepy.


Wonder how many actual hot chocolates they sold in the 32°C heat.








You really have to admire people who are willing to dress up in thick, furry costumes with the sun beating down on them.


Gotta love a morris dancer.




The coolest vehicle of the parade and he still looked sad.


Costa to cool off with some ice-cold drinks.


The signage for the butchers in town is one of my favourites, it's recently been re-done, can't even begin to describe the font-appreciation.
Does your town put on fun summer events with parades and funfairs?

Trash Arts: Wasters

A few months before I finished Uni I had the pleasure of meeting Sam Mason Bell. One of the first things Sam told me when I met him was that he was an aspiring filmmaker. Bringing us up to present day and Sam has just released the teaser trailer for his upcoming feature-length film, 'Wasters'.

The film is set in March 2010, and follows three nameless characters on a long weekend of decadence, ignorance and hedonistic pleasures. The idea of the film stems from Sam's personal observations of party lifestyles and drug culture while he was out and about last year. However, the aim of the film is not to preach that this culture is right or wrong, but to tell the story and allow the audience to observe. So stop thinking in 'glamourous' 'Skins' terms.

The casting process for 'Wasters' was very straight-forward. Having made films around the Portsmouth area previously as well as having a lot of friends, Sam wasn't short of people to help. However, something that I think quite admirable of Sam is his utilisation of the University. The main 'Wasters' cast comprised of drama students from the University of Portsmouth, all good friend's of Sam's. In addition to using the University, he also found two actresses on StarNow, an online talent agency.

The film uses various locations in Portsmouth including Envy's popular alternative club-night, the aptly named, 'Waster'. The production process was mainly a smooth one, with any issues coming to light earlier in pre-production with writing and cast members dropping out.
Luckily, he pulled it all off, so expect a premier around Portsmouth some time in the New Year.

Sam is part of Trash Arts, a Portsmouth-based production company which has had minor success with both various short and feature films, come 2012, they will be entering their fourth year. This is Sam's first attempt at going it alone under Trash Arts, and it's bloody good stuff, so expect to see more in the future.

Related links:
Take a look at the Trash Arts blog
Like Trash Arts on Facebook.
Follow Sam on Twitter.

Trash Art's next project is called 'Our Last Summer' and casting begins on 9th October at the Groundlings Theatre in Portsmouth; if you think you have what it takes, have a look at the Facebook event and head over to audition.

And there wasn't even any free cake!

So as I mentioned, last night I attended the Malden Fortnight presentation evening, in which they present awards and thank you's to those who have taken part throughout Malden Fortnight.

Attending meant that I was able to receive flowers from Heidi, the lady who organised Funday Sunday, and a cheque for my services, I also had the wonderful opportunity to stand awkwardly in front of everyone while I was presented the cheque and Jenny tried to take some photos of me. Here is what came out, they are a bit blurry.



It was an alright couple of hours, I mean it was an open bar and there were free nibbles and things. I also managed to meet the lady from Radio Jackie who had been emailing me, she was very nice. I have also managed to nab myself a family portrait shoot for when I get back from Hong Kong, which sounds like fun, it's with the family of the little boy with the dalmatian face paint, so cute! I was 'on the job' as well, so I was obliged to take a few photos.

Malden Fortnight; Funday Sunday.

Here goes my last official post for Malden Fortnight. I'm currently uploading the hi-res files onto CDs for both Village Voice and one of the organisers of Funday Sunday. I was supposed to deliver them this morning but things have taken a lot longer than I had initially planned, you never really realise how little space a CD has, I'm definitely taking for granted the 250GB on my external hardrive.

Yesterday I covered the family event, Funday Sunday, from which all proceeds are to be donated to The Lunchbowl Network, a charity set up to aid orphaned children in the Kibera slum in Nairobi. I must comment that it was very akin to the sports days that used to be held at my primary school and seemed overall very 'British' to me, if you get what I mean. It kind of reminded me of this advert for Churchill.
As with all the Malden Fortnight events I have shot, it was all good fun, and it was nice to go along as an observer.
Throughout the afternoon food and drink was served and later on their were different kinds of races, including skipping and 'space-hopping' and after that, Tug of War. The Tug of War was taken particularly seriously by the men, but I won't make any further comment on that.
A set of images can be found on Flickr. These are my personal favourites from the day.














It is strange to have now completed a second run of Malden Fortnight for the Village Voice, I encountered more 'professional' photographers this time than last year though, which was odd and slightly intimidating at times. I would hope to continue pursuing work like this in the future, only perhaps more in terms of a career than work experience.

In case you were thinking about asking, I didn't go to my interview this morning, I was too exhausted from this weekend's events as well as the cons that came up when thinking long term. I would be unfulfilled in terms of the pay, or lack there of and the commute, it was unrealistic to pick somewhere so far away, especially considering it was unpaid and there was no room to adjust and move closer. I'm not greedy but there is a need to afford things such as travel whether it's in relation to expenses or not, it just wasn't the right job for me at this point. I just hope these aren't my famous last words and I actually do end up finding a job that I like that uses my degree...

Current plans now that I've finished everything for Malden Fortnight involve finishing off this Glastonbury film and getting started on re-vamping my website...