Little Fish | Linkage
Bio.. For a band, Little Fish are indeed small; there are only two of them. She’s JuJu who sings and plays guitar and he’s Nez who plays drums. As for strange? Maybe just a little bit. According to JuJu, “I think I’m quite odd which is why I find it quite hard to relate to myself as a musician. But when I get on stage I am at my most free and I feel really confident. When I sing I give it everything.” …..[more]
I rabbit on about bits & pieces here on gtvone.com and, every now and then, some of those bits & pieces are important. Nothing is more important than life…
…and sometimes water can mean the difference between life & death… don’t drink anything for a month – you’ll know what I’m on about.
I will be posting about water on October 15th – and I’ll try to make it as relevant as I can.
If you can support this cause / topic – you should.
“We’re celebrating the life of Chazz Haddon, frontman of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, who sadly passed away on 20th August 2010″ Me too – they were awesome on stage.
Chazz… I hope you’re still singing wherever you are — http://www.myspace.com/ouestleswimmingpool
That’s quite a mouthful, that lens name… So what does it all mean?
L - L series is the more professional end of the glassy goodness from Canon (who make more than just photo copiers!) Sometimes they are a grey’ish white’ish color, sometimes they are black with a little red strip around them… not to be confused with a can of chilled Jamaican beer, namely Redstripe…
70-200mm – Well, that’s the focal length isn’t it.. from what once would have been where the film sits out to your focal point…. so, 70 is good for wider portrait type shots from the front of a stage whilst 200 gets you right into the artist nostril for a good poke around… everyone loves “up the nose” shots, right?
f/2.8 – This is called aperture… You might hear someone say “Shoot wide open” what you’re talking about is opening your aperture (the smaller f number) right up as far as it will go. With a lot of lenses, you will see something like f/3.5-5.6 or so, if it’s a zoomy type lens, if it’s a “prime” lens (one that needs leg powered zoom) you most always get an single aperture value like f/1.4 f/1.8 and so on… The lens here has a single aperture value of f/2.8 which means that it’s a “pretty fast lens” all the way from 70mm to 200mm – which makes it perfect for concert photography and stuff where light is a factor*.
IS – contrary to popular belief, this isn’t “IS” ..as in “The Canon 70-200L f/2.8 “is” MKII ….is a mkii… it’s IS as in Image Stabilization… There’s two types to choose from.. this way and that way, but, again, contrary to popular belief will not make your photos sharper than a cheap legal secretary if your arms are made of orange jelly (jello, America, jello) –It will help you when the light is less than perfect and your shutter speed has to pop down low and go, go..go
MKII – That means that there was a MKI…. it had a couple of differences, most notably a different IS system…two types, not just one… and it’s more expensive, but it is lovely.
So – First Impression? I’ve not been able to take any serious photos (where I’m pulling a serious face as I discharge the electrons) but a couple of quick snaps in less than favourable light, of my little baby boy, Sebatian, and I was really very happy, excited and wanting to point it at the nearest musician… that will come!
Build quality is pretty typical of an expensive L series lens… tank like… it’s heavy, it’s going to hurt after three songs, but it’s going to be worth it… Sharp, Fast and white enough to make me stand out to a crowd of would be lens thieves…
It just feels right.
Images to come – stay tuned.
*when is light not a factor?
I have a baby, he’s ten months old, he’s great… BUT, now I have another baby, she’s only two days old (to me) and weighs almost as much Seb did at birth! …..without further ado, I give you…
As Yet Unnamed
The Canon 70-200 F/2.8IS MKII…
So, what’s it good for? It’s good for taking photographs of people a certain distance away – like, on a stage… That’s what I’ll mostly be using it for.
Like a rocket of love
Comes with a lens hood, a case that I’ll never use again and the end cap and lens cap… The MKII has two types of stabilisation, one that goes this way *moves hands* and one that goes this way *moves hands again* …does that mean I can be more shaky handed? no… Are we starting to rely to heavily on technology to take good photos for us? I hope not.
Very much looking forward to using her at a gig…
Sunday afternoon, a break between work, I had a DM on Twitter (I hate Auto DM’s) that said “Review our album” …I thought, yeah, uhhuh… It’s going to be rubbish!
I love being proved wrong.
Track one… William Posters… Guitar attacks your head, followed closely by an almost always tight bass / drum combination (I only say sometimes as I think there’s a little bit of overdrumming in this one track) a brilliant vocal from Claire and Adam… The bridge, where the hell’s the bridge – there it is… some great bass line / guitar disjunctness (that ain’t even a word) but with the vocal over and then swimming into a wave pool of guitar and drums you get taken… powerful, dark and brilliant!
Track two… South Audley Street… “lush vocal layering” ….coming from William Posters into south Audley Street .. it’s like the sun coming out when you’re sitting in a park with good friends.. There’s not really an easy way to describe this track – it’s giving me tingles …is that one of those cool funny looking eBow’s on the guitar? that’s wild… Claire’s voice is magic and the blend with the BV’s (or second main vocal from Adam, or.. whichever way you want to see it?) they go together so well… Once, we all had a dream… This is a good one, a real good one…
Track three… Stars and the sea… Dramatic pause, enchanting vocal… another transportational track and then WHACK… it hits me and I’m moving to it without control… music that does this to you, it’s so good… there’s not a lot of it around, and then as if the scene in the film had changed, we come slowly back down – guitar, a bit of bell (cymbal, not big ben) and you’re driving… bass line stepping around the other instruments, filling its place nicely… this song reminds me of many artists and none, all at the same time – perfect – brilliant.
Track four… Oubliette… (Title track) A Dungeon, accessed only via a trapdoor in the top… The energy, oh the energy… A slightly different feel again! the same vocal inspiration, a powerful track with a kick in the stomach of guitar and tribal drumness… then, we go all staccato on yo a**…. then we attack you with a wall of super charged guitar and a snare sound so tight it kills puppies… totally adds a new dimension and feel to these five tracks…
Milk – The Long Division (Acoustic) from Milk on Vimeo.
Track five… The Long Division… Rather than wax lyrical about how good this track is and how it’s left me wanting more MILK, very soon… I’d suggest you visit BandCamp and download this for yourselves – put it on your iPod and listen to it, over and over. Tell your friends about it.. Go see these guys…
| Upcoming Gigs | |||
| 28th Sept 2010 | The Water Rats, London | £6, map | |
| Supporting ‘Good Old War’ Milk on @ 8.15pm Reg. for cheap guestlist on FB event |
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Milk is James Pritchard (Drums), Claire Robbin (Guitar, Vocals), Adam Stark (Guitar, Vocals), James Whyard (Bass).
Recorded on an island in the Thames. Mixed in room with no natural light as tube trains rumbled underneath. All songs recorded and mixed by Milk. Artwork by Richard Merrick.
www.facebook.com/milknoise
www.myspace.com/milknoise
www.twitter.com/milknoise
I’ll be off out photographing Nile Rodgers | Chic Collective (my own naming!) and the other six hundred musicians (Turned out to be Westcoast Soulstars) tonight at London’s Indigo2 venue at the o2 Arena. It’s going to be an amazing musical feast.
http://www.nilerodgers.com/
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What do you, dear reader, make of these?
Here’s a photo that has nothing to do with the content of this post, but for your viewing pleasure, a road…
Steady as she goes
Dear health care professional…
I’m on my last day of a trip to Tunisia… I have a nine month old son for whom I’ve boiled bottled water for the last nine days as nobody could give me a straight answer… “Is the water safe to use” Now whilst I realise that everyone suggests ‘you could contract Hepatitis A’ I wasn’t concerned and didn’t let Sebby the kid drink any, though a couple times he splashed himself in the face whilst in the bath (though that water smelled a lot like chlorine)
I’m drinking a coffee right now that was straight out of the tap, but that’s boiled… What about washing a piece of fruit that’s hot the deck? Bottled water??
Is there a definitive answer or, as we’re such a litigious society, is nobody able to answer??
Peace
It is our second last day here in Tunisia and I’ll miss it… It was an uncertain factor when we arrived, almost arriving to a third world type country out side the inhabited bits… The people are helpful and friendly and not to pushy, the beaches are brilliant (as long as you stay away from the tourist bits : see pic below for HOW far away we stayed.. The touristy but starts at the big White hotel whereas we have a fisherman near us ) and when you don’t cook yourself, the food is great (our apartment manager organised a lady from nearby to cook us lunch which actually lasts three days! For a stupidly low price) …anyway, I could go on about this place for ages, but what I wanted to say was about these strange sleepings Seb has been taking!! He has changed and so hates bedtime at night, wakes at 5am and then, if we go to the beach after breakfast, after about ten minutes of me swishing him over waves and such, he falls asleep on my shoulder… We bought one of those sun shade tents like a big reflector, it folds into a circle (imagine me, day one, massive rectangular reflector on the tourist part of the beach in high wind trying to fold it up!!) anyway, boy is fast asleep in the shade totally chilling spread out like a star fish in his little rashy…
