01 CURIOUS BEGINNINGS
Thanks to: Zal Tehrani, Kieren Fox, Mark Berry, Lucas Tribe, Paul Chitty, Remco Merbis@Pixillion, the whole Arun Pro Team, Faye Westrop@suityourselfmagazine for her support, All those peeps involved in the photography and fashion especially Inma Azorin, Thx to Tom Martin & Jez Bezwick, Nick@Leftbank, Ren Media, all publications that support our work but especially The Big Issue, Mike Savage@ Prime Cuts, Tim, Andy & Di@Repsycho, believers worldwide, insurgents, the forgotten and all Bristol Massive doing their thing!
ARUN 01 2009-2010 (Winter) ‘Curious Beginnings’ photos & words by Arun/Chris Lucas unless otherwise stated. www.arunproductions.co.uk advertising enquiries:
chris@arunproductions.co.uk +44 (0)7791 975860 ARUN Magazine is published by Arunproductions 2009-10
printed by: www.portakalbasim.com
Spirit-of-the-Age, Chavenage Hall, UK. It was at a vintage car event at a stately home, dressed in 30’s style clothes and she had the perfect megaphone.
Cover: Inga, a friendly Norwegian in her 70’s came over to me to explain the procedure of covering oneself in mud, baking it dry in the Spanish sun and washing it off in Iodine pools, all for the benefits of healthy clean skin. The mud baths of Loan Pagan, near La Manga, Spain host thousands of mud worshippers every year who bathe in the salt saturated waters till their ailments crumble off, absorbed they believe by the mysterious mud. It certainly did the job for my mozzy bites.
W
elcome to ARUN 01
or to use the more informal title, “Curious Beginnings”, so called because of the nature of this first incarnation. A mix of reportage, fashion, profiles, culture and life, and for now it’s mostly told with lots of photos and few words, but this will likely evolve. We hope you enjoy our first tentative step, because we learnt and saw a lot while making it. We need a little time to find the good stuff, so that’s why we’re quarterly, but we think that’s worth waiting for. It’s a creative document, it’s free and we’d like to try and keep it that way. We’re based on Planet Bristol, UK but like the city itself, have contibution from all over the world. The ethos is ‘anything goes’, from the famous to the unknown, the big to the little, and from the right to the wrong. There’s lots to see...you may know some of it, you may not, but hopefully each page brings something new, unexpected or interesting. We’re distributing as far as we can manage at the mo, so as many people can have it, so preferably you’ve got your own copy - rather than reading a friends! Enjoy this very first installment and we’ll see you again soon in the not too distant future. Chris Lucas
Tomasz - Seven Sisters - London
T
he recession of 2009 hit hard, especially for some of our newer (UK) residents. Unable to gain benefits from either the British or Polish governments, recently unemployed workers like Tomasz, 52, were forced to find shelter in some of the unseen spots of London. Here a makeshift home had been sketched together under the damp arches of a railway bridge, amongst the rats and rubbish. Remember how cold it was that winter? You don’t have to, it’s even colder this time around.
Son of the
Silver Saint
J
orge Guzmán is better known as El Hijo del Santo (“The Son of the Saint”), a Mexican professional wrestler, political activist and one of the most successful stars in Lucha Libre, the Mexican wrestling federation characterised by complex hold techniques, high flying attack moves and colourful costumes and masks. He is the son of the legendary professional wrestler, film actor and Mexican folk hero El Santo, and like his father has been iconised in comics and films. Photos by Mark Berry
Ellen Lingerie by La Perla from Oh!La!La! Clifton, Bristol
www.pixillion.com
Stone Season Every year, midway through December, one of the oldest human structures in the world, Stonehenge, plays host to pagans, druids, and the curious. It is the winter solstice and marks the annual rebirth of the world. It’s often pretty cold on Sailsbury Plain and on this frosty morning a couple huddle for contemplation.
Above: Druids perform the welcoming of the sun and longer daylight hours. Below: The congregation chant in unison to help cleanse the world. When you joined in it did seem to work.
Merlin and Emerald re-affirm their marriage vows in the center of the stone circle during the winter solstice. The thousand or so sun worshippers hush as the couple recite to each other.
ReacTable
I
climbed the old grand staircase, because the grilled elevator to the floor which housed the elusive Music Technology Group research lab, at the University of Barcelona (Pompeu Fabra), Spain was broken. A week or so earlier I’d seen a YouTube video of a strange music making device that shone brightly with neon pieces, adorned with extra-terrestial patterns that provoked the gleaming circular surface into a symphony of electro beats and wobbly bass. This was the Reactable. Off I hopped to photograph the thing and the team behind it. A month later I was told that the Icelandic singer Bjork had commissioned her own to play with, which seemed to make logical sense.
Left: Sergi Jorda is the gentleman behind the team that conceived and designed the Reactable. Sergi was a jazz sax player, but got bored with the scene (who can blame him) and in 1984 took up electronic music and eventually beacme an associate professor at the institute. He’s done all manner of other things notably creating a pig skin robot that has shown in more than 20 european and american countries. Oh yes, he still performs jazz with the FMOL Trio, and of course, one of the members is a computer.
Above: These mayan mitochondrian symbols represent wave forms, samples and sound filters/modules that via a two way infra-red camera system bouncing back and forth from beneath the Reactable’s surface, allow the user to manipulate sound real time and see it expressed as animations on the table’s top surface. Basically these blocks make sound, you move them and it changes the sound and the pictures help you work out how to do it!
Marcos Alonso and Martin Kaltenbrunner, two of the Reactable team give me a performance in one of the lab’s darkened rooms. The animations can be seen on the surface of the table showing the relationship between sounds and effects allowing the users to see the evolution of their music real time, and make a more intuative music mash-up session. www.reactable.com
Shangri - La
Semi Furnished with Peachie Keen
Hair/Make-up: Inma Azorin www.inma-azorin.com Model: Donatella Pegler Stylists: Louise Coughlan and Nicola Thomas of www.peachiekeen.co.uk
Liberty Bright
Fifties Blossom
Rose and Aqua
Lavender Spot
POLISHIOUS When on the move in Poland, the cunning Polish have come up with the ultimate snack: the Zapiekanka - half a baguette with a mushroomy sauce and grilled cheese on top. Tomato sauce and spring onions are optional but for the full effect they shouldn’t be ignored. Zapiekanka can vary, from a stubby cheese fest to the more pleasurable length of an entire baguette.
For the diner who wishes to sit down on their Polish visit, there are the ravioli like ‘Pierogi’, unleavened dumplings which contain various fillings of potato, cheese, mushrooms, ham or fish. I was served them boiled with fried onions, but alternatives include baked with butter and garnished with bacon or apple sauce! Usually the pierogi are small and are served in multiples but sometimes I’ve heard, this is just rumour, a single giant pierog can appear on one’s plate.
Joe Coleman
is known as an apocalyptic visionary. He was expelled from the New York School of Visual Arts in 1978 and paid the rent with a show where he ripped off rats’ heads with his teeth, or so the story goes. Today he runs the World’s Museum of Oddities and is a full time artist selling his canvases to the likes of Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Korn frontman Johnathan Davies. He apparently also has a line in couselling students in how to leave art school. Photos: Mark Berry
SHADZ Where do you start with this guy? The name’s Shadz and he’s emerged from the shadows of Bristol’s underground scene representing on dubstep releases with Wedge (Running Away and Move to the Sound), long time collaborator Guido (Summer Rain EP) and with Bristol Hip-Hop’s Twizzy. (Days Don’t Change) With the dubstep crew Statix he’s releasing records and playing across the UK and Europe and you might just catch him with Bristol’s Central Spillz crew. As a singer he fronts neo-soul outfit Roots Elevation band too...and I think I heard he’s working with Bristol Hip-Hop vet Hundred Strong on a recent live venture. I did say, where do you start? www.myspace.com/shadz_man
DJ PARKER
Aside from relaxing on benches with his transistor radio, DJ Parker is one of the most accomplished party rockers out there. After honing his hip shaking skills on dance floors across europe, and providing scratches for underground UK hip-hop masters like Secondson and Jehst, he took his ideas and created the epic album “To Eternity” released on breaks king Cut La Rok’s label Rokstar Recordings. One sold out album later with accolades from all over the shop, he’s dropped ‘Where’s My Monkey’ (Check YouTube) a unique take on TC and Caspa’s respective classics ‘Where’s My Money”, a string of releases on Goodgroove plus a recent collab with funkmaster Boca45: ‘The Beekeepers’ on Jalapeno records. The gentleman of disco-sweaty butt-boogie is hard at work on some new material for a second long player. Keep your eardrums peeled! www.myspace.com/djparker
Missy Malone styling and clothes designed: Rosie Anderson hair and make-up: Inma Azorin
A regular performer on the world burlesque scene Missy teases crowds with her performances, and titillates fans with risque photo spreads. Here she relaxes with Arun in some one-off garments by Miss.Anderson, and is given the Azorin touch. www.missymalone.co.uk
the fauns
Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s before Brit Pop stormed the charts there was Shoegaze. ‘What’s that?’ I hear you say–. Think epic dreamscapes of smudged guitars, layers and layers of them, distant drums and vocals often morose, but gently uplifting, all tinged with a healthy dose of psychedelia. Which introduction leads us nicely to The Fauns, unashamedly (in their words) influenced by the original scene they are taking their new revival sound to a global audience hungry for bands who constantly have their heads down because they have their guitars plugged into so many effects pedals - hence the term Shoegaze. Intially their first releases were to two compliations, ‘Just like a Daydream’ and experimental Bristol label Invada’s ‘The Secret Garden’ but they have since released their debut album called...‘The Fauns’, a ten track journey thorough Life, Love and (courtesy of Loop frontman, Robert Hampson, who’s provided a remix of ‘Lovestruck’ hidden somewhere at the end), Death. Word is there’s a limited edition vinyl release too, some in black and some in pink! So next time you are wandering cyberspace check out their dreamy video promo, ‘Lovestruck’ and witness the heady blend of cityscape and nature sonically captured and then perhaps cop a copy of their long player CD. Then you too can make merry and dance with The Fauns! www.myspace.com/thefauns
styled by : samaya ling hair / makeup : meg selth model : francesca kalliomaki-barton
www.samayalingvintage.com
www.renmedia.co.uk
We are
Babel Babel are in an upside down room designed by the artists Michael Sims & Beth Williams. Born in Bristol UK, Babel started out all kind of small, folky & a bit shy but then fell in dirty love with pounding tamborines and volume knobs. Songs led to concerts, concerts led to the recordings, some of which reached places far beyond their own postcode. At least that’s what their myspace says. www.babelmusic.co.uk
The Dining Room
the
I
lock of love
n the university town of Pecs, Hungary, there are symbols of love developing on fences here there and everywhere. Couples have been fastening locks of all types (mostly
padlocks though) to railings, sometimes engraved with initials, but usually just silent tokens of affection. It’s become so popular in Pecs that the town council have erected a fence dedicated to the
lovers locks. No one know how the tradition started but it’s developed since the 80’s into a habit that has spread across the country to Miscolk and across the borders and seas to Latvia and Japan.
Nell Nabarro by Yolanda Kingdon www.keyphotography.co.uk
The
Death Justice
OF
O
n the MONDAY night of October 12, 1987, a Cardiff newsagent named Phillip Saunders was battered over the head outside his home. Five days later he died and a murder enquiry was started. Michael O’Brien and two others were convicted of the crime based upon one of the men’s confessions in police custody (a tell tale sign of a miscarriage of justice). All the more baffling for two of the men, because they knew they were ALL innocent. The men became known as The Cardiff Newsagent 3. O’Brien spent 11 years imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit. While in prison his wife left him, his daughter died in a cot death, and he saw seven murders. He went inside at 19 and unsuprisingly became an emotional wreck, but he still managed to believe in his innocence, he educated himself in the law and judicial system, and upon his release started a campaign to sue the South Wales Police Force and the British Judicial System. Six years later he received the highest compensation claim ever paid out by the British Judicial system and managed to change the law. Previous to his successful case the police and judicial system were not obliged to reveal the sums awarded to succesful claims making it impossible for prosecutors to refer to previous cases. A final little insult was to have to pay back £42, 000 for the ‘food and lodging’ at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Micahel now runs MOJO - Miscarriages of Justice Organisation, set up with another victim of miscarried justice, Paddy Joe Hill, a member of the ‘Birmingham Six’ who he met in prison, to help those victims of a corrupt system. The Death of Justice by Michael O’Brien is published by Y Lolfa. www.ylolfa.com
BLOODBATH
McGRATH Los Angeles-born artist Elizabeth McGrath has always had an eye for the strange beauty in the grotesque of life; Inspired by the relationship between the natural world and the remains of consumer culture. Today she lives in Downtown LA with her hairless dogs Blue and King Tut, and her Husband Morgan Slade. They play together in the band Miss Derringer. photos: Mark Berry www.hot-cherry.co.uk
General Law of C onduction or How I Learnt How to be a Conductor
O
xford University’s faculty of music, St. Aldates offers students some of the highest musical education in the world, from instrument and vocal tuition to music theory and history. One of the college’s most recent trial additions to it’s syllabus is the Conducting Masterclass. I spent a day with John Traill, who takes the masterclass, and who has been described as ‘one of the most promising conducters of his generation’. As well as being the Director of Music at St.Catherine’s college, Oxford and the Southhampton orchestra he is also a successful composer in his own right, with a string of academic qualifications, including being awarded Oxford’s first doctorate for composition. Johh’s aim with the classes is to produce more individuals who are able to teach conducting and to develop the conductors’s ability and psycology to communicate with a large group of people.
A student makes some last alterations to a manuscript before the conducting class.
Students of conducting rarely get to work with an ensemble let alone a full orchestra. John was able to train with a full professional orchestra when he studied at the conservatoire of Sofia, Bulgaria. The masterclass lets the students put into practise the theory from the morning sessions and work with groups of instrumentalists and soloists. Oxford has a stream of organ scholars who need the skill of conducting for choir recitals and John currently tutors privately. The masterclass enables any student to realise their ‘air’ conducting.
Left: Masterclass Right: Weapon of choice, the time keeping baton. www.music.ox.ac.uk
A Turkish Dip Platter:
beetroot and tahini, carott and coriander, hummus, basil oil and served with toasted pitta Styled by : Michael Logue of Proyors Bank, Fulham, London
R
ose Kemp is a recording artist who has had solo success with her own releases on the One Little Indian label and is part of groups including Jeremy Smoking Jacket who have performed at Glastonbury and The Tate. Folk, Rock and the delicate Noisecore are all influences to the pot. Since her last album ‘Unholy Majesty’ she has been touring all over the UK and Europe. www.myspace.com/rosekemp
TWIZZY & CHRIS LUCAS ft : SHADZ
DAYS DON’T CHANGE
Download from iTunes and Amazon, from the album ‘Dirty Nun Talk’
- SIMPLISTIC
ARUNPRO 01
DAY Model: Emma-Louise Make-up: Rebecca Austin Hair Stylist: Brad Cowan of Mack Daddies, Bristol Location: The Mauritania(JAVA)
FOR NIGHT A
girl clutches cash as she waits
for her boyfriend at the mobile needle exchange in central Bristol, UK. The exchange run by the Bristol Drugs Project provides clean needles for the city’s heroine users, minimising the spread of disease and reducing the harm caused by drug dependence. www.bdp.org.uk
“She tried to sell me some tat outside the amphitheatre (2nd biggest after the one in Rome) in Pula, Croatia but ended up posing for a cheesy photo.�
t e s e l l i FLes rmes A
Les
les armes: BRISTOL AIRSOFT realisateur: IAN SAYERS
les filles: CHARLOTTE CINDY & SARAH
www.bristolairsoft.com
soul singer with roots in hip hop and drum and bass. globe trotting dj and a classically trained cellist. collaborated with jazzanova and remixed by roni size. a love of jazz and rock with a fondness for punk. dope beats and harmony photographed on some x-processed Kodak Elitechrome slide film, h e l l o
ben westbeech www.myspace.com/benwestbeech
Come Dance With Me
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Tinker has a cyst on his neck, which cats apparently often develop near to the area where they are vaccinated and so has to go under the knife. Knocked out, the nurse checks his heart rate to make sure he doesn’t awake mid surgery. Look closely you can see his little tongue hanging loose. Get well soon!
Above & Right: A week at the vets and animals come and go. Most are for consultations but some stay for more particular treatments or operations. The vets have to deal with many species and ailments and their knowledge and diligence in their long working day is remarkable. Far Right: Knocked out the pets wait for their operations. Reggie here has a nervous habit of biting his tail, so much so that it’s gone rotten and has to be chopped off. Nice.
A little antisecptic rub down and off with the plums, poor fella.
A castration (left), chemotherapy treatment (above), and a barium eyeball (below) to find grit, are all in day’s work for the veterinary surgeon. But the practice is a jolly place with owners and nurses giving out lots of cuddles to adoring pets.
This image: Deco-Dance Tee & Le Ballet Skirt Right: I Love London Dress
clothing: Johann www.johannearl.com styled: RuinedLou www.myspace.com/ruinedclothes make-up/hair: Inma Azorin www.inma-azorin.com model: Hannah Rees @ www.gingersnap.co.uk Johann is available in Urbanoutfitters
Sophie Woodrow Sculptor
S
ophie’s sculptures ponder on nature, creatures from the imagination and the easy line crossed when considering the two.
I met Sophie in her studio, Jamaica Street studios, Bristol, where she tells me that her piece “Before You and Me There Was Everything” (above) deals with the themes of paradise, utopia and the world before and after human intervention. How do we see and interpret nature around us, and what are the influences on each other? “The Ambassador From the Sea” (below) came from a period when she was studying the Victorian era, discovery of new species, the gaining of knowledge and how humanity has certain views of itself in its own time. Humanity has chronocentric tendencies, a belief that ‘now’ is more advanced, evolved and knowledgeable than ever, so that’s why the ambassador pays us a visit. To remind us otherwise. Sophie is continuing with her exploration of the human/nature relationship in new installation work with vast rabbit shaped mountains and suchlike. I leave Sophie with her variety of mixed media, from porcelain and wax to newspapers and knick–knacks and emerge from a quirky hidden world of magic and mystery. www.sophiewoodrow.co.uk
R
Rob Law
Product Designer
ob, as his title suggests, makes things, and what he’s most famous for (at the moment) is the Trunki, a kids ride on suitcase. Now selling in over thirty countries Rob’s genius was, while on a university assignment to design luggage. He got bored looking through a department store looking at the suitcases for inspiration for the project and wandered into the toy section and noticed the ride on toys. He married the ideas, a lot of blood sweat and tears and hey presto, a multi-award winning product that sells the world over. www.trunki.co.uk
Haley Nolan Writer/Performer
What does a girl do after being Mattel’s Barbie for a year, touring the UK and keeping the dream alive? You write and perform your own musical, base it on the current economic situation and call it ‘Credit Crunch’, that’s what. Haley’s shows sold out at the New Players Theatre, London. I last heard she was singing classical arias to crowds in London’s Trafalgar Square... www.haleynolan.co.uk
Mark B
Music Producer and Kboro record Label Owner Mark is known as a pioneer of the UK Hip Hop sound, probably most well known for his album “The Unknown” with the rapper Blade, but has also fostered classics like ‘New Mic Order’ with the underground colossus Taskforce. He has produced for a load of underground British MC’s and collaborated with artists from the States, Europe and Australia. There’s a rumour there might be some singers on the new stuff too. www.myspace.com/markb
It’s just not cricket
...or at least, not as we know it.
T
he World Indoor Cricket Final
between Australia and South Africa was a tense and furious affair. While it’s outdoor counterpart is associated with sunny days and breaks for tea and sandwiches, the sports hall version is flouresent lit, sweaty fast paced, close quarter blitz mayhem. Music pounds throughout and the crowd’s relentless cheering eggs fielders into shouts and screams for the batsmen’s dismissal. And dismissed they are in a constant stream, much to the delight of the satisfied mob in the stands! Indoor cricket was created in the 80’s in an old warehouse in Perth, Australia and has now become a world sport with 22 countries competing in these finals held in Bristol, UK, 2007.
Left: The fielders cheer for another dismissal. Rather than leaving the field and slow the game down the batting team is peanalised by a points loss. Below: Batsmen and fielders discuss the way forward. Opposite top: All fielders take it in turn to bowl. Opposite bottom: The South African team huddle through the nets for team tactics... to no avail the Australians went on to win!
www.ei8ca.co.uk
Mushin Hendrix
T
here aren’t many of them for the world to see, but they are there. Mushin is one of the world’s few openly gay Imams. Islam, and for that, religion in general sometimes isn’t thought as being particularly homosexual friendly, so Mushin has become a pioneer for gay rights in the Muslim world. He lives in Capetown, South Africa but travels the globe to give lectures and seminars for various progressive social groups and universities discussing his interpretation of the Koran and counselling fellow Muslims who have to accept their sexuality and their spirituality. Photographed at the annual Freedom of Expression Festival held at The University of Nottingham’s International Human Rights Law Center in 2009, UK.
We spent a night in the holding cells. The empty police station had been closed for nearly fifteen years and the building was a century old, so it was a perfect location for a ghost hunt. Members of the group dowsed for spirits while the more sensitive simply sat in cells and attempted to communicate. We formed a circle and made contact with a soul known as Kevin who said he had died in the cells 50 or so years previously. He stayed a while, then left without saying goodbye.
Knowledge of
BUGS
Tom Bugs creates analogue sound boxes for the discerning music enthusiast/musician. In a world where digital compositions and sound modules built from binary dominate modern music, Mr.Bugs has made a business designing his own sonic creations (all branded with his scarab logo). With portable and ‘desktop’ versions of electronic synths like the ‘audioweevil’ and ‘bugcrusher’ going through regular re-development and the man himself being recognised as a musician in his own right contributing and collaborating to many bands and acoustic experiments/festivals worldwide, Tom is recognised as one of the world’s leaders in blip-blop woooeeeeeee bmuuurrr technology.
www.bugbrand.co.uk
Here at ARUN you can be assured we’re looking all over the place
for more cool photos and interesting stuff - see you next time!
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