Pure class

Gnarls Barkley Smiley Faces

Aaaah...bless the internet. Yes this video was filmed in Crystal Palace... I haven't laughed so much in ages...

Post Carnival Rinse Out...

and probably the best end of summer party you'll find this weekend. BIGNESS.

Outside In

that woman stumbling / dancing/ jumping/ running around Totnes, Croydon, Brixton, Secret Garden Party, Cargo and Carnival, chatting to strangers, friends and stall owners, wearing silly clothes, cheering any reference to South London, drunk and happy, in love with life and with people, sitting on pavements beating tin drumz with bruised palms, singing her heart out, telling off groups of young boys attempting mischief, discussing the finer points of openess with a white dread who's name and age were 'whatever...,' messy, smiling, laughing....

is also the same woman who used to find it really difficult to go anywhere without a camera and even harder to rrrreally let go and party...hahaha, it's fun!!

hope y'all are having an equally colourful summer. if so...celebrate, it aint over yet! hopefully someone will send me some photos of mine, if not, oh well.


Love

8 x

a family tree

Primary sources
Originally uploaded by Blackdown.

Anyone who know's me well enuff knows that this gyal (nerd at heart) can't get enuff of webs and diagrams. This particular one that I've blog pinched off Blackdown (bless-up guy!) has got me all excited. Penned by ex-Ammunition founder Neil Joliffe, it explains the history of Garage and how it evolved into Grime, Dubstep and Broken Beat.

It's particularly poignant for me at the moment. I've spent a large portion of this week email battling the Grime loving photo editor of a very well known magazine who insists that Dubstep is 'a pointless sub-culture.' Regardless of our opposing opinions, the man in question is a damn good photographer so respect to him for his images. I just wish he'd get off his high horse and realise that Grime and Dubstep although different are undoubtedly share the same musical ancestory and are equally significant.

"The soul of Bob is in this park...

in the trees, in the grass. No man can tell me that I can't ride around it."

Every morning, a man known only as D cycles around my local Crystal Palace park singing and smoking a reefa. On first sight he appears to be a happy guy sporting a banana yellow mountain bike to match his bright orange lycra's. But say hello to him and you're in trouble. 'Why are you saying hello to me...eh?" is the answer I got when I said good morning to him one sunny day. He says himself that he's so used to negativity that he's come to expect it. Give him some time and patience though (lots and lots of it) and it's easy see that despite his skunk fuelled intensity, he's a peaceful man plagued with paranoia about the system, women trouble, concerns for the environment and pure love for music.


D's been around the area for a long, long time and his version of the 1980 Bob Marley and Wailers concert in Crystal Palace Park is the best I've heard so far. He is afterall, in his own words 'the original google,' so it's to be expected. When he speaks of the concert with singing to illustrate the story, he sucks you into the vibe so much, that you wish you could have been there yourself. I wish I could say more about him but I can't do his strong character justice. Maybe one day he'll allow me to record his stories or take some photos of him but taking into consideration his concerns about being watched, I very much doubt it.

Still... here's the only pic I could find of Bob Marley and The Wailers on the very stage that me and the Palace fammo sit near every week. That very concert which still blesses the various gangs of skaters, joggers, cyclists and dog walkers of Crystal Palace Park with the soul of Bob.

D's tribute to freedom: "All them people walking around the park, who aint really feelin it, seeing it. They're wasted. Look at him over there, his belly hanging out of his trousers. He needs some exercise. He's trapped inside himself."

Further info about what truly is one of the most fascinating parks in London:

http://www.cocgb.dircon.co.uk/cry_pal_park.htm


www.crystalpalacefoundation.org.uk

and about Bob Marley's visit:

"When Marley came to London to play Crystal Palace Bowl in 1980, he didn’t want to do any interviews. Instead, Partridge booked the five-a-side court at Eternit Wharf Sports Centre in Fulham for four afternoons. Anybody who wanted to meet Bob had to challenge him and the Wailers to a match. ‘I remember we took all 11 Wailers up to a sports shop on the Fulham Palace Road to get some kit,’ says Partridge. ‘The shopkeepers didn’t know what had hit them."

Carcogenic