Childhood was a mixed bag of memories and emotions, from what I remember of it. Most of it was good, some of it was amazing. The clearest memories I have are those of being on holiday with my family in Mallorca; one which will be relived with our now extended family in May this year. Other memories I have from all those years ago, are playing with Lego and watching Star Wars with my Nan and Grandpa at Christmas. Fond memories I am keen to cling on to.
It is something I have carried throughout my life into my adulthood. Yes, I still play with collect Lego, and I most definitely still watch Star Wars. This photo was a given really, as to which way it would go. Shown in the photo are a few of my latest (and favourite) Star Wars collectibles.
This post is likely to be filled with cliché but there are times in life when you just can’t beat a good cliché. I’m writing this quickly as I have to go to work soon, which is a rather depressing thought considering how nice the weather is today. It is also one week before we celebrate our eleventh anniversary together. Where does the time go?!
I’ll tell you where. The time we’ve spent together has been the best eleven years of my life. We have travelled across the Atlantic together several times, around Europe and into Scandinavia. We have laughed and cried, fought and made up again. In short, the time has been spent loving someone who loves me equally in return.
Here come the clichés. He is my best friend, my soul mate, my lover. What we share together is inexplicable, unquestionable and unending. He pushes my buttons and I push his in return, but one thing always remains – love.
Day eight of the photo challenge, and it actually is becoming a bit of a challenge, surprisingly or not. When I think of bad habits, my mind is instantly drawn to that of my own. I see people and their bad habits on a daily basis (as do we all), which provoke a reaction of varying degrees. When I was younger, my bad habit used to be biting my finger nails. Nowadays, that seems so petty, especially in comparison to cigarettes.
I don’t really see the point in going into why I, like others smoke – there’s just no point. A non-smoker would never understand. That’s by the by. This particular photo has been the most difficult for me to capture, mainly as it has sparked a whole range of emotions in response to the results. So this is my image for day eight. This is my bad habit.
For day six of the photo challenge, I get to keep my feet firmly on the ground. In almost seven years of living in Bournemouth, I had never ventured out towards Weymouth or Portland. I’ve had several opportunities, but something has always interfered with our plans to visit (usually the weather). Now that I’ve been, I can safely say that I would return again and again, and again.
So today – as again, you might guess from the post’s title – I am featuring a photo that was taken from a low angle. Now obviously, if you’re going to visit Portland, you’re going to take a photo of Portland Bill, the majestic lighthouse that stands atop the cliff. I thought I’d try for something a little different to the hundreds of clichéd shots you see.
If there’s one thing I like about Coldplay, it’s that their music is forever changing yet it remains true to them; beautiful, melodic, evocative songs full of both sombre and soaring lyrics. I was only thinking a few days ago that we were due for some new music from them, and then I saw that they were playing the SXSW iTunes festival this year, and I thought now we must be about to get something new from them. Within the space of 24 hours it happened.
First came “Midnight”, shortly followed by the album’s lead single, “Magic”. Then they gave us the album cover and track listing. Inevitably they will tour with this album – I’m guessing this autumn – and I hope that I will finally be able to see them live. I just need someone who is willing to go with me, as not everyone will openly admit to the fact that they like Coldplay’s music. I on the other hand, will quite happily declare that I love Coldplay! So here are the videos for both new songs. “Midnight” comes with its own video, and “Magic” comes as just an audio video for now. Ghost Stories is now available for pre-order on iTunes and is due for release on May 19th.
The writing in the post will be brief, after all, what can be that interesting about the clothes I wore today. And how can you make a photo featuring said clothing that interesting either? And who came up with this list of things to take photos of to feature in this challenge? It’s beyond me. Anyway, here is the photo of what I wore today.
The world we live in is vastly different to the one I knew as a child. Back in the 1980’s there was no such thing as a ‘selfie’, and even if there was, the photo quality was so poor that you’d never admit to it.
Nowadays, you can’t log on to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (or any other form of social media) without being swamped by god-awful photos of people you know, all of which were most likely taken in a drunken state. And people are actually proud of these images. They make me shudder. There are few that are actually worth looking at, most of which are taken by vanity-driven men at the gym (and I don’t necessarily have an issue with that).
This is my first photo submission in a 30 day photo challenge I’ve taken on. Day one is self(ie)-portrait. And I honestly do like this one.
I spend far too much time inside my own head; evaluating, questioning and generally dissuading myself from doing something. There are few places that make me escape and feel free from my own thoughts – the main one being London. Wandering the streets on my own amongst the maddening crowds is a sure-fire way to help me lose my thoughts, distracting me from myself.
A feeling of self-abandonment can be a good thing, especially when you’re an over-thinker like myself. Being lost among the throngs of a busier, more hectic life than my own is the best distraction. The second best for me would be photography. Put the two together and it’s damn near perfect. These photos were taken over the course of a couple of visits to the big smoke.
The first is a building that backs onto The Hampshire Hotel in Leicester Square, the second was taken down a back street somewhere near Oxford Street, and the third photo is one of the National Theatre, on Southbank. I love London for so many reasons, the main one being the sheer diversity in its architecture. On these occasions I was attracted to the simplicity of Brutalist and Victoriana structures.
That’s right pop lovers, Kylie has officially announced the title of her new album as, Kiss Me Once. For about a week now she’s been teasing us with daily updates to her Facebook cover image, gradually revealing more and more of her face. Then it was announced that the album title would take the following format: the first word with four letters, the second with two and the third with four. And that’s when all the gays hit fever pitch, and started trying to unravel the mystery; Kiss My Lips, Feel My Kiss and so on. I on the other hand have a life, so I read all about it and got on with other things.
I will say this; I really like the album artwork, very Sleeping Beauty-esque with Kylie posed with her eyes shut behind the glass. That said, she could’ve just fallen asleep in the shower. And I totally understand why everyone was guessing the album title would have something to do with the lips (if you can’t work it out, I’ll give you a clue; the big, bright red things).
If this wasn’t enough, the new single “Into The Blue” gets aired (officially) for the first time on Monday 27th, but naturally nobody could wait until then and we’ve seen all manner of poor and high quality leaks of the lead track over the last seven days. And no, I’m not going to post it on here, for I have a higher level of respect for Ms. Minogue and her artistry. I will however post any of her other previously released songs for your aural pleasure. In fact, I’ve chosen to post a classic in the form of “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” for this week’s ‘Song for the Weekend’, mainly because she was a bit of a saucy minx in this video too.
Some things grow old very quickly and we move on to something new and exciting, some things stay with you until you yourself grow old. When I travel I always find something new and exciting about the place I’m visiting, regardless of the number of times I might have been there, but the act of travelling and taking photographs of the things I enjoy never grows old. Copenhagen was full of thrill and wonder for me, like no other place I’ve ever been to before. There was such a wide variety of architecture and design around the city, quite unlike most.
The three photos featured in this post were the ones that most captured my imagination; two are quite similar in their modern design and the impact they have, the third is altogether intriguing and structurally magnificent for its ornately unusual design. The first image is of The Black Diamond, which is a modern extension of The Royal Danish Library. The second image is of the old Copenhagen Stock Exchange, which was founded in 1625 and housed the stock exchange until 1974. The third image (quite possibly my favourite of my time in Copenhagen) is of DR Byen – which literally translates to DR City – and is the home to the Danish national broadcasting corporation; the buildings also include the Copenhagen Concert Hall.
the world according to mincey strider 