2007 is well and truly underway. I saw in the new year working at the Park Lane Hilton , catering for the iron bribe of £10 an hour.Thats a good £80 plus tips, I'm not complianing! The night was rolling on just fine and dandy until a few youths started a brawl which resulted in the evacuation of 1100 people in about 15 minutes. There were flying glass bottles, chairs and people outposting unnecessary pride by throwing punches. Thankfully this was after the countdown(around 1.00am) so not many nights(as possible) were ruined. The countdown itself was sweet, I got to spend it with my brother and my Mum )who was a guest at the party), it was far better than a couple years ago when I was working and had a coffee cup in my fists at the stroke of midnight.
So, with 2006 behind us the only way is foreward and what better way to start it with the next installment of my student loan coming through any week now! Joy!
Finally Happy New Year to anyone sad enough or with enough pitty to be reading this!
I've just finished uploading 12 photos of The Wintermans shot along the grand union canal yesturday(29th Dec) online. It was a hell of a muddy day and took alot of patience from both mine and the boys' behalf, even so we sorted it!Unfortunatly Andy couldn't make it to the shoot but we still worked through the wind and wet. Head over to my Flickr to check out the lot! The Wintermans Myspace My Flickr
As a result of waking up at 9.05PM today I feel as though I've lost a day of my life. The reson being that I finished my last shift at Crisis Open Christmas 2006 this morning. The shift itself was great and as ever I met some interesting characters during the ten or so hour slug. Afterwards we decended upon a nearby pub sardined with crisis volunteers ordering pints at quarter to nine. Later on me, Aaky, Ras(h) and Hitz all got 12 inches from Subway on Liverpool Street...Finally I dipped in and out of sleep and drooled on the train home. Nice.
I hit the traditional post Christmas Sales in central London earlier today, in order to beat the rush I left home at about 8.20am, London was quite eerily quiet in places such as Carnaby street and Regents Street.
I bought a new hoodie and a rather cool checkered shirt from H and M (Much much muchly needed) which wern't actually in the sales but were still great value for money, I did manage to score some nice Vans trainers in their 50% off sale which was sweet.
Finally I bought Snakes On A Plane on DVD which I'll probably watch later on tonight.
My uni work remains untouched! All in all however, it was a practical day.
Merry Christmas all, hope all of you are well and happy and feasting on an animal or three. My Christmas has been rolling on fine this year so far, I got some nice pressies, a fish eye lens atachment for my Camera and a bit of money, the perfect gift for a photography student who'se pockets are burnt out.
The days been fogged by a bit of sadness though, Soul legend James Brown unfortunatly passed away earlier today aged 73. Click below to see a clip of the "sex machine" in action.
Earlier today I completed my first of three night shifts as a volunteer for Crisis, a charity for homeless persons. Staggering in at just about half past ten this is the best time to write a post about it as I slept through most of the daylight hours today. Last night was quite something, we were understaffed due to a lack of volunteers, however everything ran smooth leaving Sam from management to declare it "one of those classic nights". Also on a more bizare note, I ran a couple of shifts with a girl named Kirsty, who studied at Roehampton University last year and lived in Bede House room 219(I'm in 212 - thats right across the hall). Well I beter get some food down me, gotta venture off for a second night in about 45 minutes. Hmm 10.00pm- 8.30am...the good life.
P.S Crisis are quite under-manned this year, so if anyone feels they can help get yourself down there.
With the likes of NMEand Gigwisecompiling their top album/singles lists, I thought it would be a nice way to pass the time to create my own list of my essential albums that best soundtracked 2006 for me and more...
MY TOP 15 ALBUMS: 1. MUSE - Black Holes And Revelations* 2. YEAH YEAH YEAHS – Show Your Bones 3. THE KOOKS – Inside In/ Inside Out 4. CSS – Cansei De Ser Sexy 5. LARRIKIN LOVE - The Freedom Spark 6. THOM YORKE – The Eraser 7. THE GRATES - Gravity Won’t Get You High 8. ARCTIC MONKEYS – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not 9. METRIC – Live It Out 10. MYSTERY JETS – Making Dens 11. KASABIAN - Empire 12. RAZORLIGHT - Razorlight 13. WOLFMOTHER - Wolfmother 14. FLAMING LIPS – At War with The Mystics 15. HOWLING BELLS – Howling Bells (Featured Album Art) * = No surprise there
MY FAVOURITE "NEW BAND" OF 2006: CSS/ THE MACCABEES After lot of thought I couldn't really decide between these two. Thus I cheated and made it a tie between CSS and The Maccabees. With CSS hailing from Sao Paulo and The Maccabees from some corner of southern England their worlds and music couldn't be further apart, however their rationale for being my favourite new bands to emerge in 2006 are because of both bands' live shows, which are more like parties than gigs to be fair. (Left: CSS, Right:The Maccabees)
Is now complete! Woo! After purchasing my mums gift earlier today its safe to say that all my Christmas shopping is done and dusted. On the downside I had to brave the very busy London crowds and the freezing fog monster which has had its grip on the capital for about four whole days now.
Following the advice of my brother, I watched the movie 'DIG!' on DVD in the comfort of my own home tonight.
The movie documents the relationship of two bands; Brian Jonestown Massacre(who you probably haven't heard of) and the The Dandy Warhol's(who you probably have heard of) over a period of seven long years and follows them both on joint and separate touring stints. The movie contrasts the Dandy's huge success in both the US and Europe with the BJM's failure to start, with the Dandy's signing to major label Capitol whilst the BJM are still finding their feet after front-man Anton Newcombe tackles with heroin abuse and refuses to "sell himself" in his words, to a major record company.
Shot in documentary style on a variety of film formats, the movie deals with the bands inital bonding and bitter fall out due to drink, drugs, fights,rock n' roll rivalries and jealousy.
As I walked to the chippie this fine evening I was met with a sea of fog. I thought it looked quite cool, like a scene from that old 'horror' movie...The Fog! In addition to gawking I also took some pictures(having minor technical difficulties with uploading rotated photos at the mo).
Just got back in from theCobra Good Curry Awards 2007. The annual bash was this year held at the Park Lane Hilton in London town. I can confirm that it was a great afternoon out.
My family thoroughly cleaned up, with Madhu's taking 'Best Asian Outside Caterer' and my uncle Kewal Anand accepting a 'Lifetime Achievement' award for his work at the Brilliant Restaurant.
The event was co-hosted by Industry mogul Pat Chapman and Sky News Anchor Lisa Aziz. Entertainment came in the form of a 4 piece string section - Dil Se Strings, and erm... an Asian Elvis impersonator. Quite a mix then eh!
The joys of holiday boredom have spurred me on to start up my own blog. I've been thinking of doing this for a while but have always been put off by plans or work or more plans to not do work. I think this blog will be a nice device for me to enthuse in my photography; both academic and personal, as well as my love of journalism - by adding reviews and any features i might write in the future. It shall also be a place to just go on about the general or wacky events of an 18 going on 19 Londoner.
This blog may be a tad slow at times but consider it as a small baby in an incubator - it just needs patience, in the meantime theres a whole whole world of Anant Naik related junk to sift through on the interweb... Flickr : My Photography Myspace: My Personal Mypsace (complete with regulation photos)
2007 is well and truly underway. I saw in the new year working at the Park Lane Hilton , catering for the iron bribe of £10 an hour.Thats a good £80 plus tips, I'm not complianing! The night was rolling on just fine and dandy until a few youths started a brawl which resulted in the evacuation of 1100 people in about 15 minutes. There were flying glass bottles, chairs and people outposting unnecessary pride by throwing punches. Thankfully this was after the countdown(around 1.00am) so not many nights(as possible) were ruined. The countdown itself was sweet, I got to spend it with my brother and my Mum )who was a guest at the party), it was far better than a couple years ago when I was working and had a coffee cup in my fists at the stroke of midnight.
