Grey Skies And All

Last But Not Least

2005-03-30T16:50:00.000+01:00

+crottes de nez et jus d'tomates+

2005-03-23T17:35:00.000Z

Ca va faire le niaisage

2005-03-21T14:46:00.000Z

London's alright today. Sometimes, this city feels like the most retched and unpleasant place in the world, but today, it's alright. I especially like it trough the windows of the double decker buses i take to make runs down Tottenham Court Road. I wish i could sit on the top floor of the bus and ride around london all day listening to Animal Collective and The Beta Band. London can be quite rude and harsh and at times, it feels like i'm an oblivious 14 year old all over again and i've got a "kick me" sign hanging from my back. Could it be that my "american accent" is putting people off...
It is true that there is quite a strong anti-american sentiment here and perhaps strangers box me in with the rest of them. In any case, that's not what matters i suppose and everyone else i've met, through Sub or work, has been absolutely lovely.
I had a great time on saturday, hanging out with The Alexanders and Ciaran (The Irish man with a for-real button phobia), Sub's old Hong Kong pals. And even though we were in a stupid club with loud stupid music playing and serving expensive bottled beer and no pints! Travesty! we still managed to have a good and funny time. We also played an amazing game once we got back to James' .The game constits of 3 to 4 people, each holding a metal handle and when the green light turns on, the last one to press the plastic button on their respective handle gets electrocuted, which actually hurt a bit, and you could feel the chock go up all the way to your shoulder. It was great....um, and did i mention we were drunk!

The weather's been amazing in the past week, in the plus 10's and it actually hit the 20's on friday and saturday. Sub and i walked down the canal in camden town and it was so nice to see all the venice-like homes and very old residential boats that look nothing like any boat i've ever seen! And then we had english style sausage in a baguette and fried onions and we got mustard on our clothes.

It was quite mad in the office last week and i did not have a moment to myself. The phone was ringing off the hook as we were preparing for the Oasis shoot on the 18th. I was told on Wednesday that we needed around 100 extras for friday. I was in charge of hooking up all these people in 2 days time, which wasn't an easy task believe it or not. Quite a few people thought it was a hoax, but we still managed to pull it off in the end.

The morning of the shoot, i arrived on set at the inhumane hour of 7:30 to have breakfast with the rest of the crew. The location for the shoot was at The Round Chapel in Hackney, a quite dodgy area of north london. It was a beautiful space but the room we were to use for the band's green room looked exactly like what it was...a very old and ugly church room, filthy walls and all. I scrubbed the walls and the bathroom with the help of another runner called Chloe.e hoovered the carpet. We tried to make the room look as nice as possible. We brought in a table, which we covered with light-green velvet curtains (yum!) i had found in the basement. We rented a futon from across the road and bought some magazines, fruit, flowers, drinks, crisps, cigarettes and put in a stereo.

The shoot went smoothly and once we had all of the colourful performers and extras in there with the band playing on stage, it was just spectacular. It was like a rock & roll circus burlesque party and since the costumieres were absolutely wonderful, they hooked up each and every extra with great costumes and makeup and i truly think the video will look great and i can't wait to see the final product, or maybe just the rushes. I've seen some of the director's previous music videos and so i know to expect something good.
Timmy Q is the one who directed the first big contract that this production company pulled off which was a Prodigy video. I also saw a few bits of the new video for The Coral which is looking very promissing. I'll try to come back home with a dvd of all the good music videos Draw Pictures has put out.
The Gallaghers were surprisingly pleasant and nice and humoured all the extras-some annoying, some drunk and chatted with the crew. Actually, Liam, notorious for his awful attitude, was hanging out with the extras and posing for pictures, etc etc...and even managed to smile throughout the whole shoot. The band was on stage for most of the time, playing over the track while they shot the scenes, and while the camera men and light guys were reloading or setting up for the next scene, the band would play some other tunes to entertain the crowd and keep them dancing and happy.

It ended up being another 17 hour day but well worth it. The crew was very different from the last shoot i was on and every single person on the team was incredibly nice and friendly and we all had a fantastic time.
It is Monday evening and I plan to drop by Sainsbury's for a cheap bottle of wine on my way home. I only have 2 more weeks here and will try to make the most of it with the little money I gots in my bank account. I hope to find work quick when i get back to MTL but do not want to return to old stupid job.

Oh! And I really like the Kings of Leon I've discovered!!!
Yes.
And has anyone heard Robot Rock by Daft Punk? It's brilliant and so is the video!

Le Printemps a Montreal

2005-03-21T14:28:00.000Z

Ma gorge sent l'alcool et mon nez sent l'ete
je roule saoule a l'heure ou seuls les taxis peuvent te tuer
Mes jambes avancent toutes seules
et mon coeur se sent con
Je me couche a l'heure ou se levent les gars de la construction
Je pedale en sandale comme une hippie amoureurse
je ris toute seule le vent me rend chatouilleuse

Meme quand je suis triste et que je n'aime plus personne
j'avance les yeux fermes, en pedalant dans l'accident,
Je double l'ambulance
mes cheveux dansent en chantant
une chanson qui porte ton nom
sur un standard americain
c'est un one-step ancien
prend ma main, on est retro mais c'est pas grave, dans la cave de ta mere j'y vois plus clair,
le tapis au poil long absorbe le choc de nos talon.

Meme debout je t'aime a genoux.
*********************************

par Evelyne Brochu

Kill 'em all, let god sort it out!

2005-03-02T14:01:00.000Z

I hate it when people don't update their blogs for weeks, and i realise i've been doing the same. I do have a good reason however; I've been very busy AND Sick.I lost my voice completely over the weekend and am slowly regaining it back. I either sound like a 13-year-old boy going through puberty or like an old jewish lady. I can't make up my mind. I'm watching Uk MTV2. They are playing Baby Shambles. People are obsessed with Peter Doherty here. He's in all the scum newspapers (and there are tons of them here). The latest scandal was about how the ex Libertines' front man had a fight with . I love reading the scum newspapers. My favourite one is called The Sunday Sport and is all about tits and ass. The last one i read had a 4 page article about under skirt camera phone pics! It was fantastic!!! The actual sport content is way in the back, and consists of only 4 pages of the latest "football" scores.

Cheesy house music is huge here, which is insulting my ears. Most bars where people hang out during the weekend are shishi bars, the kind you find on lower st-laurent and where drinks cost 2 times a trillion dollars. Not cool. Sub did however introduce me to a few cool places. One of my favourite bars is right here in Camden town, called The Lock Tavern. It kind of looks like an old British man's cigar club, with its old leather sofa's and chairs, old tapestry and chandeliers. They play really good rock and roll and the pints aren't too expensive. This is a picture taken at another of my favourite bars. Il y a des sortes de maquettes etranges comme celle-ci, suspendues aux murs. Et les trucs bleues gigottes!!!

Work has been good. I went on a shoot last Thursday, which ended up being a 16 hour day. I was exhausted by the end of it, but it had been such a great experience, i really didn't mind. We were shooting a video (which are called "music promos" here) for a band called Bon Garcon, which is a hip-hop/ r&b group, quite cheesy...there were tons of models on set, in skimpy clothes and shaking their asses and being obnoxious, and they had snakes and lizards too, for that exotic touch. Ewww!Fucking Fromage! Anyhow, i had to move heavy film and lightning equipment all day, and it was like moving 10 of my friends all in on day, but with tons of models in the way, smoking cigarettes and snickering!!!
We just got confirmation that we will be shooting the next Oasis video, so i get to hang out with Liam and Noel sometime in the next few weeks!!! ~Yesssssss! I've had to conceptualise for this video, collecting images of burlesque shows, flapper 1920's people, etc!

It's been fun! I also had to make a few interesting runs, such as tubing to Piccadilly to pick up red glitter drum sticks at the Hard Rock Cafe, as well as purchasing a large box of brown crickets at the local pet store. This has got to be the randomest, funest job in the world!

Sub has been good as well. He's been spending many late nights/early mornings twirling his hair and scribbling never-ending equations on his paper pad. He's been making his last few weeks at Queen Mary and Cambridge worthwhile as well as trying to fit in as many friends into his schedule as he can since he knows he won't be seeing any of them for a very long time once he officially moves to Montréal in April. We are both flying in on April 1st by the way, so if anyone feels the need to throw us a party for the 2nd (Saturday), feel free!!!!!!!

On a different note, i have decided to not pursue my scarf business, as it is too time consuming. And as far as my super cool pins go (e.g. gun pin I am wearing on picture down bellow), i don't think they would sell all that well in London. It seems as though all the girls here dress the same...boots that go up to the knee that they wear over their jeans and chic tops. My woolly scarves and pins just don't impress here...

Camden Town is a pretty cool place to live. It's home to a permanent market, filled with the kind of shops you can find on mont-royal, and home to one of the biggest Goth communities in the world...hmmm, not so cool after all, hun! Sub was denied entry to this bar:

The Devonshire Arms
They told him that regulatory attire was "goth casual". No joke!
Ok, so besides this, it’s still a really cool place to live. It's a very young neighbourhood, very lively, full of yummy kebab shops and Tai takeouts, and its on the northern line of the tube, which pretty much gets you anywhere you want to be on weekends. It's also the only borough where its legal to sell magic mushrooms as long as they have not been dried. There are plenty of stalls in the area that sell them.

Oh sweet, i just got another job to do...the producer wants me to research The Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus. They asked me if i knew what it was. I was like, "are you kidding?!" This is so much fun!

Cheers, Love!

2005-02-22T18:28:00.000Z

So i started the new job yesterday without really knowing what to expect. My arrival as the new slave labourer seemed a tad unorganised...either that or everyone was too busy to talk with me or hand over any tasks. I was introduced to everyone in the small production company called Draw Pictures, and it all felt a little cold. Then again, it could have been my own nervousness talking again. I spent most of my day "conceptualising" for the next video, which is being shot this Thursday. I was unsure as to what the producer was asking of me, but i spent hours on the internet, storing image upon image of punk rock concepts. After 8 hours of fucking around, i asked if i could leave, and that was that. I went home and all evening, Sub tried to calm down the little panic bug that i am. I didn't know how i felt about the job, didn't know if i liked it or even if i should stick it out for a while but decided to sleep on it and return the next day with a clear mind. Surely enough, i woke up in the same state of mind as the previous night and felt apprehensive about returning to the job. But today was actually a lot of fun. I came in and started exactly where i left off :storing more images. I spent 2 hours without anyone telling me what to do, so i just minded my own business, apart for a quick phone call to a model agency in order to cancel an audition for a boy band video. Later, Caswell congratulated me for the "conceptualisation" or whatever. He seemed to really like the folder i put together.
Cool.
Later, i had to deliver a package to MTV in Camden, an approximate 10 minute walk from the office where i work, then another package in Ladbroke Grove, which took me a good hour and half, to and fro. I was happy to be running all over the place apart for the snow blowing in my face. London hasn't seen snow in years, but it obviously has to when i am here!
I didn't come to the UK to be snowed on dammit!
My second destination was quite far, but no matter, as i got to discover a new part of London that i would've never seen if not for this job. A few coffees for the producers, a few phone calls answered and my day was done. I got props at the end of the day, and was told that i was awesome and am doing a great job. And everyone there turned out to be quite pleasant to talk to, once my paranoia had left me alone.I think i am finally happy in London, or at least excited about being here due to this job.
I am also very happy that i can finally forget about my previous occupation, which consisted of finding obvious and/or free tourist attractions and which was starting to become quite dull. And now that i am out of our basement apartment, no need to fear the cabine fever which i was beginning to feel was creeping up on me.

That is Saint-Paul's Cathedral, near The Tate.
I would have spent more time outside but the weather is usually crap and cold(relatively, i know...)and damp and the wind makes your bones and jaw shake like mad.
I also would have spent much more time hanging out in coffee shops or seeing movies but my lack of funds, which is persisting, did not permit it. The English Pound is litterally kicking my Canadian ass!
And as some of you may be wondering, (Laura! Keep your eyes And your hands off my man!) Subodh is doing really well. He went to Cambridge yesterday, for work and a seminar and got to speak to a very important physisist about what he has been working on, which is appearing to be a break-through in string theory. Ya! Although he won't admit it, i think he's brilliant. And sexy!
........................................
So that's it for now.
Keep me all posted on your montreal lives.
Love,
Stephanie.

2005-02-16T20:33:00.000Z

Today i went to The London Library in King Cross where they have free exhibits, and instead of reading and learning interesting things, i decided it would be funner to take pictures of myself in the kids' section!!!

I had to hide from the security guards because just like most museums, it is not permitted to take pictures inside the exhibits area...

When i went to The Tate museum with Sub, i did however manage to take a picture of Andy Warhole's Elvis without anyone noticing. Super!

I'm not going to the Pub Quiz finally. Instead, Sub went to go blow all our money on poker night with his friends...maybe he'll come back with a wad of cash so we can go and get smashed! His friend's Carston and Mi lent us a t.v so i'll unbore myself by watching some. They have really great t.v here! Every night they show 1 or 2 episodes of Six Foot Under which is so good, and then there's this other show where some mad-scientist type german doctor dissects dead bodies live on t.v. It's educational and fucking cool. Yesterday, he took apart both a female and male body to show all the reproductive system. He sawed up there bottom halves and voila!!! So cool!

:::Here i go:::

2005-02-15T18:41:00.000Z

I've been feeling angsty, wanting to start posting here for days, and here i am sitting in an internet cafe avec le syndrome de la page blanche. So typical! I have acces to the internet from home, but it's just too expensive to use it from there. My wallet got stolen...so did my digital camera!...Sub and I were in a nice looking bar, the kind you'd find on lower st-laurent/the only kind you find here in London. Some guy discretely sat down at our booth, snuck his hand in my bag and left. Cock-sucker! I've been having fantasies about bashing his teeth in. The asshole used my credit card, but visa will erase those transactions now that a police report has been filled out. This has made me extremely paranoid! I am constantly looking over my shoulder and holding tight to my bag...i hate being weary at all times, but i guess that's the way it will have to be if i don't want to be had again. So all the pics you will see here are from the new digital camera that Sub bought for for me...on his birthday no less...How fucking nice of him i know! I have a growing library that i will be posting on a regilar basis.
This is an awful city to be broke in, especially with this insane exchange rate...my money is virtualy worthless...but at least booze is cheap!

This is the sky on my street on a particulary sunny day...
It's not always as nice as you may have guessed.
........................................................................
I haven't been up to much since i've been here, except maybe going out every single night since my arrival. I've had to adjust my drinking behavior as bars close at 11 here. It's crazy i know but with a population of alcoholics on your hands, it makes sense, since drinking starts at 17:30...by 22:30 everyone is wobbling around already completely smashed...i really can't imagine what it would be like if these people were aloud to keep drinking for another 4 hours...it would be disastrous, and the economy would suffer for sure.
Tonight i am meeting with a few of Sub's friends from HongKong for a pub-quiz. I'm still unsure of what it consists of, but it involves getting drunk and a sort of trivial persuit type game that is played simultaneously by everyone in the pub, and there are prices to be won. It should be fun!
Monday i am meeting Jocelyn. I was reffered to her by Sub's friend Orion. By next week, i should be working/slave laboring for Jocelyn on a music video set. I am very excited about this as you can all guess...eat your heart out Computershare!!! Keep in mind i am not getting paid for any of the work i'll be doing there, but it's a great oportunity, and may open the door to many more while i am here in London. Before this came up, i was lacking a bit of enthusiasm about being here. I don't know if it's the lack of money, or my sudden unemployment (which is something i should be rejoicing over, i know!) but i was not thrilled for the first few days. I think being out of my element just made me suffer a confidence drop and made me shake in my boots...
On a lighter note...this internet cafe smells like toilets.