Jay Jay Pistolet

'"I hate my voice...I think my lyrics are bad too", says singer/songwriter Justin Hayward-Young, aka Jay Jay Pistolet, as he flits from modest martydom to forthright faith, "but I already know that one day I'm going to be really good but I don't think I'm there yet." One thing's for certain, though, his new release 'Happy Birthday You' is a haunting, vintage, post-war collection of naïve love songs produced by Charlie Fink of Noah & The Whale fame. Anti-folk associations aside, Justin should be rescued from the oversaturated gaggle of musicians circulating at the moment. "When people criticise me, it's always that I'm not offering anything new. But I don't think that's really that bad...if I wanted to do something new I'd probably sit on a computer all day and make weird sounds. All I want to do is make nice songs."

- The Fly, Jan 2009

This track was filmed for the Fly, it's beautiful. I also recommend We Are Free, it's a much bigger sound similar to that of Bright Eyes.

Split Exposures.

It's been almost a week since my last post, and since then I've had back my latest roll of film. It's not the best, the lens had broken off the camera body just before the shoot so I had to hold it against the body myself, which means that they're all pretty washed out, but here's the best of the photographs I could salvage.

(n.b. I made myself my own basic 'splitzer' by carving up a plastic salt-pot lid so that it covered half of the lens at a time, so that I could shoot half-a-frame at a time thanks to the Diana+'s frame advance system not being coupled with the shutter.)

Found.

While I wait for my latest roll of film to be developed, I've found a big pile of old, amazing medium format photo's. Some are of my mum, some are people I've never heard of before, but this one is my absolute favorite. It's the message written on the back, I think Eddie is my late uncle, but I have no idea who Cameron is. It feels as though I was never intended to see this, like a private joke between two friends, but somehow I've ended up with a pile of stories.

Jeremy Warmsley

By no means a new find, but when I finally got round to buying his latest album (How We Became) on iTunes last night, I immediately thought of a collaboration between Patrick Wolf, Rufus Wainwright and Thom Yorke. If He Breaks Your Heart is released for free download on February 14th.

Manhattan.

Party Hats.

No. 1 irritation: snapping the elastic on your chin.

Elizabeth I, II & III

Ah, welcome to my blog. Expect mainly some of my photography, plus whatever else I throw in.