Last summer I had a pleasure to work with Shepard Fairey and his crew on the interior piece in West Hollywood Library. Words can’t describe how freaking awesome that experience was for me but please check out the video directed by Sage Seb.
… what a year!!!
Arab Spring
Massive deportation in USA: Arizona=Nazi state
Occupy movement
London Riots
South Sudan - a new country
Amy Winehouse, Steve Jobbs, Gil Scott-Heron and Mike Starr - DEAD
My bike was stolen in front of the uni
I’ve managed to get inside the Zapatistas’ community
Discovered that I CAN paint - assisting Shepard Fairey at ObeyGiant
I started to be a part of DUI Agency
Visited new places - Singapore, Australia, Arizona, Mexico and Cuba
Meet bunch of awesome people
Radiohead and their album “King of Limbs” - definitely my favourite in 2011
“Biutiful” Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is the movie of the year - at least for me, even if it was release in 2010.
Deftones “Risk” the most played song on my iPod
The best commercial - Va Va Voom
… and finally I got his blog running.
I miss:
Xmas is my favourite time of the year. I get excited already in August and this year I was listening to Wham “Last Christmas” while I was on the beach in Mexico in September.
For the past 5 years I’ve spent my Christmas in England. Half of my family stays here, some of them drive to Poland, and some of them fly to England. Despite that we always try to make it as Polish as possible.
Decorations are a crucial part of it and my mum is always good at it.
Christmas tree is a must but shame it is not real anymore :(
Cards posted on the wall everywhere.
Poinsettia
Nuts, nuts, nuts and Polish Trufle.
The food is the most important part of our Christmas Eve dinner, which is our main celebration day. On that evening we open the gifts and sing Xmas carols together.
Dumplings with sauerkraut and wild mushrooms (best when fried).
Beet soup is served as a beverage.
Plum soup - personally I hate it.
Fish with mushrooms - niceee!
Of course the table needs to be decorated nicely.
Christmas Eve table.
Christmas Day table with crackers.
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and some of you are still enjoying your time off (like me).
It’s time to think about our 2012 resolutions.
Since I’m a concert freak I’ve prepared the list of the six best concerts I’ve seen in my life. Some of the videos might not be from the same show which I’ve attended, because of the video quality, but they will definitely give you an idea how good the artist is \/\/.
6. Muse (L.A. Rising, 2011)
I’ve never liked Muse. For me they were boring and they were singing like they couldn’t go to the toilet. Muse was playing just before RATM during L.A. Rising this summer and obviously I had to inform everyone standing next to me how much I dislike them.
Muse went on stage, started playing, showing their lasers, special effects, throwing balloons in shape of eyes and I was hypnotised. I said only one thing after their show to people around me: “Everything what I said before I’m taking it back”. Those guys won me over. They are amazing and I’m a fan since then.
5. Slipknot (Hammersmith Apollo, London, 2008)
Slipknot was my band when I was a teenager and I still lived in Poland. When they released All Hope Is Gone and announced UK tour in 2008, I didn’t think twice and I bought the ticket.
I meet a bunch of really cool people outside the Hammersmith Apollo in London on the day of the show. Machine Head was playing before Slipknot and they were bloody good. When those freaks from Iowa finally came on stage and when I’ve heard that banging sound of drums I was in heaven. I’ve even managed to touch Clown’s nose. And that Spit It Out, you just have to see it for yourself.
4. Rage Against The Machine (Hollywood Palladium, LA, 2010)
RATM was about to play their first show in LA in 20 years and I was in town at that time. My common sense was telling me: GO GO GO!!! I’ve seen them a month before that show in Germany but still, seeing them in their hometown is something different. Finally, managed to get two tickets. Gosh, I was standing in front of the stage, surrounded by inpatient, frustrated males. Conan Oberst played before Rage, and he was booed at. The crowd started shouting “Get the f^&k out of the stage, we want Rage”. I felt sorry for the guy, but I was kind of tired of him singing as well. When finally RATM went out I though I’m gonna die in front of the stage. First time in my life I got scarred at the show and I run away to the back, where I was being constantly offered a weed. The whole Hollywood Palladium smelt of weed that day. RATM always delivers. They have the energy, great songs. Come on Morello’s guitar and De La Rocha’s voice - where can you go wrong. You only have to see them live.
Check out the video:
3. The Prodigy (Rock Am Ring, Germany, 2010)
I saw The Prodigy at Rock Am Ring in 2010. They were playing after Machine Head and before Slipknot. It was a cold, rainy day and my shoes were wet and it was very uncomfortable but as soon as they started the show water in my trainers didn’t matter anymore. It was a party time. The whole Rock Am Ring was jumping to the tunes of “Omen”. Keith and Maxim were jumping on stage like crazy. A half of unmasked Slipknot were hanging out with other bands on the side of the stage, no one wanted to miss this energising performance.
Check out the video from the actual show:
2. Roger Waters (O2 Arena, London, 2011)
I grow up on Pink Floyd so I know The Wall since I was in my mum’s belly. My dad as PF’s maniac and the biggest fan has never seen them live, which for me was a big NO NO! So I took my dad to Roger Waters’ “The Wall” show in London this February. We had seats in front, facing the stage - that’s what you call QUALITY! My dad as he doesn’t like to share his feelings, didn’t say anything, but I knew deep inside that he loved it. It was a really cool experience to take my old man to the gig which he dreamt of his whole life. This plus the stage installation, which it must cost Waters a couple millions of that —> £££ - made this show absolutely amazing. He didn’t spare a dime on it - a sound coming from different sides of the arena, flying pig, building the wall during the show, hypnotising wall projections, controversial slogans on the bricks, falling of the wall and the costumes a la Nazi soldiers - it was all worth this little fortune of mine.
David Gilmour performed with Roger a couple days before our show. Imagine my frustration that I didn’t buy the tickets for that specific day. Here is the link to the “Comfortably Numb” performed with Gilmour in London.
1. Rammstein (Bercy, Paris, 2009)
This concert took place in December 2009. I remember that we (me + my sisters) went a day before that to Alice in Chains concert in Brixton Academy, drove back to Horsham at night, slept like 2-3 hours, woke up and head to Dover to catch the ferry (this time Yarek, my sister boyfriend, joined us) to Calais. We managed to get our asses to Paris the next day (7h of listening to Rammstein in the car non stop). OMG!!! That was the highlight of my life at that time. I said to myself “I’ll see Rammstein live and I can die”. Adrenaline was in my veins instead of blood.
Combichrist was headlining Rammstein, and we really thought that they will be shit (none of us never heard of them then) and it will be painful to survive their concert. We just wanted the Germans to go on stage. But… it was a pleasant surprise. They were actually really good and it felt more like a discotheque rather than a rock show.
Anyway, going back to Rammstein. They were too good to be true. I was pushed into the barriers all the time, but who cares about pain when they are playing “Rammlied”. The pyrotechnics, fire, fake cocks, more fire, smoke, heavy guitars etc. It almost felt if Germans were invading Poland again, and trust me it felt good.
Here is my favourite Rammstein live video:
My good friend, Ernesto from the evil empire told me a couple of months ago about Carlos Castaneda’s book “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way Of Knowledge”.
He briefly explained to me what this book is about and I had kind of mixed feelings. I wasn’t sure if I will be interested enough to read about the black magic and the rituals of native americans.
Despite that I’ve read it and I’ll probably recommend it to everyone who likes magic mushrooms and other hallucinogenic plants. Not because it’s some sort of bible for mushroom freaks but because it actually teaches the readers the respect for the Yaqui culture and the plants itself and the rituals surrounding the use of it.
The author describes his hallucinatory experiences, which took place during his apprentice with don Juan.
There are three plants which were used during those experiences:
Mescalito, better known as peyote is a small, spineless cactus. Usually people consumes 12 to 15 buttons and the taste is bitter. Apparently vomiting is very common and the high starts after 45 minutes. Some of the users experience sensations that are enjoyable. It can also be a negative experience, like anxiety, fear of insanity and fear of death, fear of losing control or anxiety.
Yerba del diablo, knows as datura plant or devil’s weed is very dangerous and need to be carefully prepared before using. The plant produces the feeling of complete inability to differentiate reality from fantasy, in addition some of the symptoms include rapid heart beats, violent behaviour. The plant also affect the body afterwords: photophobia, which can last several days, or pronounced amnesia (whatever it means). Apparently most of the Datura users are describing the experience as mentally and physically unpleasant, sometimes even physically dangerous.
Humito is a psychedelic mushroom. The trip usually starts after 10 minutes to one hour after the consumption and it will last up to 6 hours. In the beginning the users starts seeing and feeling better, which then is followed by the rapid change in the perception of the ordinary world. Then the user starts to feel confused, while the inner vision become clearer.
That brief explanation is very dry compared to the book itself. Although I have to stress that the ending of the book can bit a bit boring because it includes the whole analysis bit.
As soon as I’ll be done with the university reports I will definitely go back to the mysterious world of Yaqui and read more of Castaneda’s books.
That’s how much I’ve got left to prepare myself for the London Marathon.
In the beginning I was thinking to get a Nike+ thingy to measure the time and the distance. That business is not so cheap actually.
I would have to purchase
The minimum cost of this gear will be £94 with the cheapest footwear. If you are running the marathon you probably want to invest in a better shoes. It’s worth looking at brands like New Balance or Asics. Remember it’s not about how cool the shoes look!
MapMyRun is a really good portal to record your daily workout and calculate how much calories you’ve burnt or calculate the running distance. It’s a free version of fancy Nike+ and ten times better. Plus you can connect with other runners, maybe someone else is sweating their ass off everyday to get ready for the marathon.
I’ve invested in a better shoes (I feel like I’m running on the carpet), got myself a stopwatch and I can easily measure and record the distance on MapMyRun. It’s really a better alternative to branded “experience” which Nike provides us.
My “hood” - Canada Water in the morning.
I’m back in London again. It was quite a change coming from sunny, warm Mexico and LA to rainy, foggy and cold England. It’s dark in the morning, it’s dark at 5PM. The only thing I wanna do is jump in the bed, watch movies and drink hot tea with lemon (by the way England, tea with milk is not a proper tea!). Yes, that’s what we call a winter depression.
Unfortunately I can’t afford to be a bear and sleep the whole winter. I have 10,000 reports to write for university and I have to run every day. Yes, people! I’m graduating in February, which means no more shitty jobs in customer service and feeling guilty about not studying and word PROCRASTINATION hopefully won’t be associated with me anymore. On top of that I’m running London Marathon next April (over 26 miles). So every day I am dragging my ass out in that cold and run 7k. I’m slowly increasing it every week so by March I should be running 16k once a week. Wish me luck!
I bet next week this page will still be blank.
So people don’t let the cold and darkness depress you.
In the meantime I’ll go back to my “studying”, which means procrastination all day long:
The next day same scenario.
New Amy Winehouse song featuring Nas “Like Smoke”:
The album “Lioness: Hidden Treasure” will be released on the 5th of December.
Will it top the Christmas chart and beat the X-Factor winner? I hope so :)
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