Moscow – Autumn Weekend

Phil — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:07:59 +0000

Here in Moscow the Autumn days of falling leaves in parks seem to be all too short but this last weekend was one such weekend, nice ‘crisp’ (cold-ish, but no rain) weather, and still had to catch up that the failed attempt at a walk in the park last weekend.

So the weekend started off with a bang on Friday, went to see The Prodigy with Andy and Rossy at the Crocus Expo Center…..It was an amazing night, they really put on an amazing show and met some cool Russian people along the way (no idea of names though at this point). The only two problems with the show was the only alcohol onsale was a drink called Jaguar which we mistook for an energy drink until it was pointed out it was indeed an energy drink pre-mixed with vodka – result! And Secondly I didn’t have a camera with me and had to make do with crappy photos on my phone like these:-

Camera Phone Photos and video from the Prodigy gig 9th October 2009

Click for slideshow

Eventually we managed to lose each other at some point in the night, and certainly Rossy and I seem to have picked up UDIs (unidentified drinking injuries), mainly by flailing arms from people dancing in my case. I shared a cab back to the city with a couple of Russians who were looking to split the fare and were going onto a club near to the flat. The next morning I woke early to find a text message from an Aussie mate Cass here in Moscow who was apparently drinking with the Prodigy in the Ritz Carlton, I thought she was just teasing, until the photos appeared on Facebook the next day!

Saturday was a day for relaxing until we decided to go out for a wander around the local area, I showed Lou some parts she hadn’t seen before, and the fresh air made me feel great again. On Saturday night we met up with a colleague of Lou’s – Dwight with his family, and having walked 45 mins or so across the city to meet them, we wandered around for another half hour looking for a restaurant/bar that wasn’t showing the Germany vs Russia football (soccer) match. Had a great meal though, they are great company.

The Sunday was spent going to one of the out of town Auchan Hypermarkets followed by a long walk around Sokolniki Park, it’s a beautiful park and also houses Spartak Moscow Football and Hockey clubs on the edge of it. I will post something more about Sokolniki in a separate post along with those photos, meanwhile here are the photos from our walk around the area we live, they are almost all architectural detail shots.

Things ain’t what they used to be

Phil — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:57:16 +0000

A few things have got me feeling nostalgic recently, not least of which is a book I have been reading called ’Things ain’t what they used to be’ by Philip Glenister the star of the BBC shows ‘Life on Mars’ and ‘Ashes to Ashes’ The return of the former to the screens with it’s soundtrack from the 80’s has only served to dredge memories from childhood as I am sure it has for most 30-somethings that watched the show.

So what is Nostalgia? Well to some it remembering the past faithfully with all the joy and pain it brings, but for most it it the sanitised version, remembering when life was carefree. So for me it is remembering the family holidays to Spain, going to the local park with the bigger boys playing football (soccer), or swinging on ropeswing that no grown-up would dare to. This of course filters out hard tackles from the bigger boys and breaking my arm on said ropeswing and hiding it from my parents as we were due to go on one of those holidays to Spain a few days later. The one thing right at the beginning of Glenister’s book is also obviously fact, the size of chocolate bars when I was younger were obviously bigger, from Mars bars to Curly Wurlys, to Wagon Wheels.

With the advent ‘social media’ music streaming and sharing sites many people are living the music of their youth once again with easy access to old music they might have forgotten,as simply never really got into in the first place. Seminal 80’s music from Spandau Ballet, or Aha comes to mind immediately, however I have always been into my music and so I always been into this music…….Actually no, I haven’t! Although I listened to this music when it was around, and like most people I used record them from the chart show on cassette, and in the process becoming a whiz with the pause button so there were no traces of the presenters on the tape. My true musical tastes I guess started with early House music around 1987, quickly usurped by Rap music, and these made their way to me via copied cassette tapes from friends of my older brother, and then from my own friends. So I find myself getting nostalgic over music like Todd Terry, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, NWA; which is odd for some people but there you go. These days sites like blip.fm and grooveshark the internet lets me indulge in Nostalgia, but also lets me indulge right now, without having to go to a shop, or to send off for some rare music, and also lets me show people how good or terrible my music taste is without having leave my seat.

But is nostalgia a healthy obsession? Well to me I guess it is, as I try not top let it take over my life, well not for more than a few hours trying to track down where I can buy old fashioned sweets or chocolate bars, or surfing through old music whilst missing out on great new music!

Phil Hawley Photography » Music

Moscow – Autumn Weekend

Things ain’t what they used to be