Radio Raheem

So, it looks like I haven't made a blog entry since Usain Bolt shattered the world record in Berlin ... happy times.  It's not that nothing has happened worth writing about, it's just that it's mostly been negative things.  The world is in pretty dire state and it looks like we'll be in the doldrums for a while.

But yesterday something (mostly) positive happened.  After more than a year (maybe two of inactivity) Torkil and I created a new piece of stencil art.  It was also the first time we did something in broad daylight, in front of people and without fear of getting caught ... which was both good and bad (see more on this later).  The event that our work was part of was organised largely by Savvinos Paraskeva (of Aphydaton gallery) with (the blessings and) some support by the municipality of Larnaca.  It was mainly a graffiti/street art event with music.  Various graffiti artists/crews from Cyprus and some from Greece gathered in the municipal parking lot just off the Larnaca sea-front and did their thing there (some on walls, others, including us, on MDF-boards).  Before going on to say more about the actual event and posting some photos, it may be worth saying a few words about our work and the piece we presented (because selfishly and shamelessly this is what this blog post is about).

Having agreed to take part in the event, after some discussion, both Torkil and I were feeling strongly that it needed to be somehow related to issues such as racism, social injustice and inequality and the civil rights struggle.  Upon further discussion and the running of various ideas back and forth we settled on the idea of doing a stencil of an image of Radio Raheem.  He is the gentle giant in Spike Lee's 1989 joint "Do the Right Thing" who always appears holding a huge ghetto-blaster playing Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" at full volume.  Radio Raheem gets brutally murdered by police after getting into a fight (which escalated into a riot) at the local Italian owned pizza-house for refusing to turn off his radio.

After deciding on the subject matter we needed to settle on a specific image which was to be used, so we shortlisted a number of stills we took whilst running the movie on the computer and decided on the one.  Then with the help of Katerina we photoshopped it and made it resemble something "stensilable" and went on to print out five layers of it which we stuck on cardboards to allow for the cutouts to be made.  This of course it the most crucial and most difficult part of the process of creating a stencil, but Torkil took care of the bulk of the cutting in less than a week doing roughly one layer a day.

Two weeks ago on Saturday we test-sprayed it on a piece of cardboard.  After that all we had to do was play around a little with the colour scheme (which we had already decided was going to be completely greyscale and devoid of other colours) to find the ideal set of spray cans to use and added a few details here and there to the cutout. 

Fast forward to yesterday, Radio Raheem's big day!  At this point I think I will mostly let photos do the talking.  Easier for everyone.  Starting off here's a photo of Torkil and I getting ready to start with bandanas to minimise paint inhalation and for a little anonymity. 

Next, this is how it all started. Plain grey background.  Not much to look at.

Now some photos to give a sense of the occasion.  First one is a bunch of young people all starting on their tags with their cans.

Next up is our main man Xenios who provided constant liquid refreshment as well as invaluable support and encouragement.

In the meantime Torkil, Katerina and George are setting up the first layer.

And Torkil and George go ahead to spray it

Here it is, the first layer.

On we go with the second layer

and on

and here it is with two layers on

George, Katerina and Torkil resting in the shade while watching paint dry, literally.

And while we wait, check out this for a bike

Next we put the third layer in place

Getting ready to spray it.

Now with three layers on, starting to take shape...

Spraying the fourth layer.

And here it is with four layers on, just one to go.

Finishing it off by applying the fifth and final layer

And here we are proudly posing in front of our finished work

And one last one, bit closer up to Radio Raheem

Some other people produced work worth showing so here are a couple of photos.  First up is slipy's Mike Tyson (picture taken before it was finished).

And even more so, Paparrazi's original piece, Old Lady and Old Man:

The rest I'm sad to say were mostly generic colourful tags on a wall with little originality and no message what so ever other than "Hey look at us we're making graffiti!"

So on the whole while I'm pleased with our own work and representation (which is why we took part) there was something quite suspect about the whole thing.  As I said to a nice lady working for the Cyprus Weekly who came over for a quick chat while we were in between layers, there is something rather ironic about the idea of municipality/state endorsed street art.  It just doesn't sit right with me quite.  These are the guys who zealously white-wash anything we do within hours and here they are giving their blessing to "making Larnaca colourful".  We may be the only people feeling that our defiantly grey-scale Radio Raheem has more meaning and poignancy than all the colours in a packet of skittles but it doesn't stop it from being true.

So much later last night, after all was said and done, ahead of going home we wanted to go back and take a look at our piece, but once we went there all the boards had disappeared and the organiser who was still there closing up had no explanation to give us as to their whereabouts.  

At the  end of Spike Lee's film Radio Raheem lies dead at the back of a police car as he gets taken away.  Our Radio Raheem at the moment of writing is missing and presumed to be lying dead in some dumpster heap after a thorough, municipality sponsored clear up.

PS All photos courtesy of our friend Alex whose help throughout yesterday was invaluable

PPS This post wouldn't be complete without 

I'm ready. Are you ready? Let's go!

Watching the 100m dash on TV last night from the world championships, in the same stadium in Berlin where 73 years ago Jesse Owens made sporting and world history, left me speechless, jaw-dropped and misty eyed. Some hours after the event my own words still fail me but I wanted to make this entry today because something worth blogging about has taken place. Something momentous. The best I can do is make a little collection of quotes.

"When Bolt ran 9.69 secs last summer in Beijing, even that seemed an impossible time. To take another 11 hundredths of a second off that defies logic, history and everyone else's biology." - Tom Fordyce, BBC Sport

"The Earth stopped for a second, and he went to Mars." - Maurice Green, former 100m world champion and world record holder

"We've never seen anything like him, and I'm not sure we'll ever see anything like him again." - Michael Johnson, former 100m world champion and world record holder

"I ran the best I could but it was not enough. I believe I put in a championship performance and I am very pleased with the national record. I'm happy he ran 9.5 because I knew he could do it. I'm happy for him." - Tyson Gay, reigning world champion coming into last night's final and US record holder

"Jesse made history here, so I'm going to try to do the same" - Usain Bolt before the race

"I'm ready. Are you ready? Let's go!" - Usain Bolt at the camera seconds before the start of the race

Remembering Athens

The mind moves in mysterious ways. For some reason these last few days I have really been thinking about one of my favourite music groups. The long now defunct Stereo Nova. Greece's first electronic outfit to have an impact beyond the club scene and one of my first personal forays into the exotic and wonderfully alien landscapes of electronic music. I think Stereo Nova as a group of artists and as a body of work would be a great subject for many a blog entry but I'd like to keep this one about just one specific song, and just one special memory.

It was August 2004, the day the Olympic games were starting in the city of Athens. I was in London working at the estate agency and because of work I missed the bulk of the most talked about opening ceremony of recent times and I think, even after Beijing, the one most people still consider the best. So because of work I missed a lot of the spectacular set pieces that blew people's minds away and was back just in time for the Parade of the Athletes. Greece took a great risk with this by employing a DJ to do a live mix. I thought it was a great idea, I was just a little less thrilled with the choice of DJ. Trance superstar Tiesto's two hour set was a great success and made for what by most people was the best (or least boring athletes' parade). Not by me though as euphoric trance is just not my cup of tea.

So here I was sitting through this all the while thinking, why couldn't you just commission a Greek DJ who would do a much better job for a lot less money. More specifically I was thinking why couldn't they get Konstantinos Vita of Stereo Nova to do this? So after many hours of Tiesto's muzac, after every single athlete had his moment in the stadium ... after the lighting of the cauldron (which was very good by the way), when the big firework and light show starts, when it's all about finished ... I hear the first notes of Opalita. One of the best pieces of work by Konstantinos Vita (essentially one half of Stereo Nova) sampling Nena Venetsanou's singing from Manos Hadjidakis' "Ela pare mou tin lypi" (Come take my sorrow away) from 1958 over very intense drum n' bass. The repeated mantra in the song "Eisai ena peristeri pou peta ston ourano, pame na vroume ena asteri s'ena kosmo makryno" (You are a dove flying in the sky, let's go find a star in a faraway world) seemed very appropriate as the music, alongside the lights and the firework explosions was simply out of this world.

I have searched long and hard for a youtube clip of this and finally I found one but it doesn't quite do it justice as the sound is very bad and the take is from outside the stadium which even though breathtaking, is simply not as intense as the shots from inside the stadium I remember from the BBC. I will include it here anyway though. Following that I will put a link so you can at least listen to the song in its full glory. Hope you enjoy:



Konstantinos Vita - Opalita

Larnaca Salt Lake 24th January 2009

Cyprus has been having a very bad drought for the last several years. A seriously bad drought ... we only have running water 3-4 times a week. Rain is a very rare occurrence, even in the winter, so this morning was a very special one. After having enjoyed several cups of tea, listening to my favourite techno and looking outside my window, I decided to make the most of my Saturday morning by going for a drive to the Salt Lake. And who better to go with than my beloved godchild. The little darling not only wasn't phased by the rain but on the contrary she was quite keen to come along and she enjoyed herself immensely.

I took some pictures with my little all-purpose 100 dollar Nikon, wishing I had a better camera to do justice to the glorious scenery, but I was still glad I at least had that. Anyway ... here's some of the pictures I took:

Flamingos at the Salt Lake

The Hala-Sultan Tekke mosque

She's my queen.

Flamingos on the other side of the lake

The little darling

Flamingos moving along.


One last picture

Watamu Beach

I wrote a bunch of stuff about this piece of music and how it makes me feel and what it makes me think about etc etc but in the end when it came to publishing it, i wondered if any of it was necessary, and thought that it probably wasn't.

So please, just listen. Words could never do it justice.

Moritz von Oswald - Watamu Beach Rework

Second Entry - Things

It's been a while. Have wanted to write but didn't. Many things ... coming back home, starting training, starting to spin vinyl, the US election, Obama's triumph ... all were things I thought I should write a blog about but didn't.

Yesterday I found out that my flat in London was burgled and that I lost a vast collection of movies on DVD, music CDs, books and video games. I also had 3 (essentially brand new) games consoles as well as my stereo system stolen. A lot of stuff I collected over many years some of it with difficulty and all of it at great financial cost. A rough estimate of the cost of what I had stolen would be £2000 - £3000 but it could well be more. What bothers me even more is that a lot of those things had great emotional value to me as I had collected them for a reason.

I don't know if I am there yet, but I am trying to get beyond the point of being pissed off at what's happened. Trying to get philosophical about it, sort of. What, if anything, can I take away from this loss? As naive as it may sound, perhaps I should learn now something the idea of which I have always liked, but have always found it incredibly difficult to practice. I should learn not to attach so much value to material goods. Cliche as it sounds I should learn to 'store my riches in heaven' ... well at least in my heart. Keep the essence, keep the memory, keep the lesson inside me forever without needing to keep an assurance that the experience that provoked said emotions/thoughts can be kept forever (in the form of the material good that offered it in the first place). To put it simply ... do I need to keep physical copies of my favourite books, music, movies and games forever just so I feel I can read them, listen to them, watch them and play them all over again - even if in practice (mainly for lack of time) I may never do so? I'd like to get to where I don't. For too long now I felt that if I was buying books etc it wasn't materialism because the objects had a certain 'soul', they had a story to tell and an experience to share and offer. It wasn't as shallow as buying clothes, or furniture, or a car ... or was it?

bugs

PS One of the things I will likely try to do on this blog, is share some music. I will try to start now with a song by a band from Minnessota which I used to really like and which I saw live twice at the Union Chapel in Islington, Low. After I found out what happened to my stuff I kept thinking of the title of their album "Things we lost in the fire". This is the first title on the album, called Sunflower. Hope this works.

First Entry

This is more of a placeholder blog for the time being. I have wanted to create one for some time now so here I am.

Right now I'm in my last month of a two month long holiday road-tripping and taking pictures of as much as I can of the USA so if you happen upon this now accept my apology for the current lack of content.

Expect to see entries about things which interest me, such as: my godchild Andriana, music, art, computers, people, cranes, bridges, roads, high capacity electricity pylons, railroads, white Christmas lights, cities, mathematics, chemical drugs, artificial intelligence, haiku, video games, stencils, sushi, fractals and other things.

PS The picture above was taken by me in Savannah, Georgia sometime last month.