FTW- Rebecca's out and about Pt 2

continued from 15/11/09 -

The day got so much better in the end as we were 'saved' thanks mostly to a very kind couple of blokes! The first a local Indian geeze who was on the hellbus with us helped us to find a place to wee, wash, have chai and stuff a veggie burger down our necks, which was amazing after having to deal with the typical masses of pushy Indian tuc tuc drivers near the station hassling and staring at us. After a lot of typical Indian talking with said bloke (of course he wanted to practice his english, bless), he helped us cram ourselves and our bags like turtles into a tuc tuc for 40 rupees - a good haggle - to the hari krishna hotel where we stayed before for our first night after arriving from the airport. After walking around for what seemed like an eternity with a 'dead body' for a bag on my back, and having absolutely no luck finding a room to shower and keep our bags for the day a *very* kind American guy (we hope as we have left our bags in his room) let us shower, horray! We went for tea with him and he was like seriously so kind as I was in such a stinking mood and now I feel like an actual human again after having a hot shower - the first in 3 days. We ran some errands in Delhi - Jen sent her parcel and I've burned my photos on a cd - but still having fuck all luck trying to upload then on facebook which is extremely irritating as I have spent the best side of the last three hours pretty much trying to do it aaaaaaaa!! So at least I have them on a cd but its seriously probably gonna take me about three days to upload all of them, alas! x

24/11/09


Argh I'm so scatty today I literally can't keep still and keep forgetting silly things like where I left my pen or to brush my hair - annoying!
Anyhoo, well, what a day - action packed and enough adventures and mishaps to rival an Indiana Jones movie for sure! We woke up super early and had an expensive (but rather good) brekkie after typically searching for a good while growing ever hungrier by the minute! Hunger takes up a large proportion of my day now so I'm pretty used to it!
Then we hired two motorbikes and set off on the long roadtrip to the 'youthful' waterfall North West of Lombok. Jen was crapping herself - understandably! But I started off riding on the back with Neka and being experienced and confident I felt relatively safe in her hands - as much as you can feel on a motorbike in Indonesia I guess!
After a while I got the chance to ride by myself and woah what a rush, totally exhilarating to be cruising through the ever changing beautiful Indonesian landscape, feeling the wind and unfortunately too many bugs in my face also! The only problems (at first) I had were turning and switching the bloody thing on - once the girls had rode off and I couldn't figure out how to actually start the engine (especially with my personal local audience watching and laughing - cringe!) And when I finally did get it started with a little help from a local, I almost died when I careered out into the middle of the road with three oncoming bikes, fuuuuuck! Luckily I escaped unscathed and with my life but it was enough for my tummy to flip and to hear my brothers' voice in my head 'Becky, don't get a bike...' oops. Finally after two or three hours and an increasingly sore arse (I should be getting used to it by now after all those camel times) and legs that were turning tomato red in the sun, we reached the waterfall. Our guide took us through the trail - stone steps, cliff edges, crossing the river and picking our way through the undergrowth to reach the waterfall, and of course being me I fell in the river, lost my flipflop and tripped up more than once on the way. But wow, the fall was incredibly beautiful and we cautiously picked our way through the stones to the pool and swam in the FREEZING cold water under the fall - so here's hoping I've gained a year back on my age for all the effort!
On the way back the guide took us through some tunnel rivers which were built in the mountains, where we had to wade through the knee deep water. Much to my dismay however he failed to mention it was actually pitch black for most of the way and though I was trying to be brave I shit myself when cave bats started flying around and skimming the tops of our heads, something I had not bargained for!
The ride back to Sengiggi was fun, until...disaster struck when we stopped and had to turn around, and of course dickhead here hadn't turned the engine off - the bike lurched forward (fortunately at a standstill) but I was hanging on and the bike and me crashed to a halt in a crumpled heap on the pavement. Luckily I managed to escape (again) with my life and only a few cuts and grazes this time all on the left side of my tummy, leg and arm, boo! So no biggie but they have started to go all yucky now and really hurts in the salty seawater haha! The bike was only scuffed a little so we hoped they wouldn't notice when we got back home...
We thought we'd got away with it when the bloke seemed too preoccupied with grinning at us than to check the bikes...but a little later he came a knocking with 'some problem', shhhhhit! Of course we argued with the blokes for a good hour probally, hiding my arms and legs, as we were afraid they were gonna screw us over if we admitted what had happened, but I was feeling more and more guilty mostly for the fact Neka was expelling so much energy arguing for me! So eventually when I could see it was never gonna end (the police were being called at this point!) I said I'd pay the 300,000 rupiah for the damage to end it and lessen my guilt! Which at around 20 quid could have been a lot worse, so that was that! So now I'm having a well deserved tea with Jen - especially after I completely freaked again when I thought I'd lost my purse and passport in the room, but it's alright, I found them :) x

FTW- WE WANT MOORE

Rushka Moore, well what can we say about this very talented young artists well for one she has just done that whole uni thing where you get some kind of scroll at the end. Her work has a certain charm to it whenever we see work by Ru (yeah we can shorten her name cos we know her) we feel very warm and peaceful. Her childish but yet very inspiring paintings always seem to catch the eye’s of everyone in the room. We LOVE Ru’s work and are so happy she has let us put some paintings up so everyone can see. We have always loved Ru cos she loves Adam and Joe as do we. She also co-host a night at the Penthouse in Brighton called EAGLE LEGS! Check it out if you can cos it is pretty sick (the guys from EAGLE LEGS will be making some noise and FTW’s forthcoming shows). Also check out her blog http://antiquetoadshow.blogspot.com/ for more work and other thoughts from this ever growing artist. FTW have had words with ru and she has told us that she is working on some new work (this makes us very happy)

FTW-They're All In Madrid-by Tris Hall

So I had a great opportunity to have a wonderful weekend in Madrid courtesy of those richer than me (folks). What an amazing city! Every street seemed to carry its own entity which meant I could walk as slow as I liked and enjoy the sights! I have to say that the pick pockets could do with a knee capping or some lessons in crafty pick pocketing (standing very close behind me isn't very Ocean's 11, I know what you're up to buddy).
I found the most interesting subjects to capture though were mostly the elderly folks, great characters!

FTW- Document

Steady when leaving the door
Smacked in the face way too many times before
This ashtray lives like you
My dear it’s time to give it up
He is too good at stalking

Eye’s follow the lights
With these sights and bangs
We try to hide away
The only good thing is the state of my shoes
No holes but big knots

Got half a brick in my bag
Just so it looks heavy
Always have a full bag of baccy
Just to look sound

Do you know it’s real?
Did you know I filmed it?
Edited and posted

FTW- Rip Roaring Cats- How Very Droll

Rip Roaring Cats a brand new band from the big smoke, FTW was lucky enough to get to make a video for the song How Very Droll for the guys just for a laugh but we like it so much we thought we would put it up for everyone to see. Check out the bands myspace (www.myspace.com/riproaringcats) cos they are pretty sick.

Enjoy x.

FTW/BOTW- STEREO TOTAL

The Berlin duo STEREO TOTAL has created a colourful and fascinating universe. This Europop outfit features the core duo of French singer Françoise Cactus (vocals, guitar, drums) and Brezel Göring (vocals, guitar, keyboards). They played at The Luminaire which is prob the best venue for live music in North London. Now to be honest we did not know too much about STEREO TOTAL apart from what the guys at BOTW had told us, on meeting Brezel and Françoise we fell in love with them. As the night went on The Luminaire started to take shape as the best venue in North London the sound was spot on the, BOTW dj’s where pretty sick playing the whole clues album, we fucking loved it. When STEREO TOTAL came on the place just went insane with people flying around the place. We could not help ourselves and get a bit caught up in the whole night for a min we thought we were in some amazing lil club in Berlin dancing our hearts almost forgetting to take photos. At the end of the night there was a full on stage invasion and even that somehow was not cheesy as stage invasion tend to be STEREO TOTAL played the punters so well, you can defo tell that these guys are pro’s. BOTW again put on a sound show and if you have a chance to see STEREO TOTAL please do. FTW will be there for sure.

FTW- Rebecca's out and about snapping away

Jaipur, view from the guesthouse roof at sunset.


Delhi...Delhi, Delhi oh Delhi.


Delhi, rickashaw and sleeping driver.


Jaipur, street kid begging for empty water bottles x

FTW- Rebecca's out and about

Rebecca is a good friend of FTW and for the last month or so she has been in some place called India. We have been keeping in touch with our traveller and getting some fucking wicked stories from her...so we thought it would be cool to post them up so everyone could have a butchers at what our mate Becca has been up to.

15/11/09

It's 7am. apparently Jen and the bus boy have been trying to wake me up for 15 minutes, the sleeper bus is empty and i'm all over the place with wild eyes and blankets and hair and bags flying all over the place and i've lost my frigging flipflop somehow so im hopping off the bus into the shite filled Delhi street, and Indians are taking my photo, wicked! Bloody valium knocked me out in the end after 2.30am, when the bus FINALLY stopped so i could ''use'' the loo...as i was frigging bursting and seriously thought I was gonna wet myself and I was so lethargic from the pill I could hardly move. So Jen was fast asleep and there was absolutely no place to pee because the men were just bopping off the bus and pissing all over the place. So I had to practically walk to the railway track and pee in the gravel asap, the whole while mega worried that the bus was gonna take off without me and I'd be stranded half way between Bikaner and Delhi god knows where! Anyway, Jen finally managed to draw some cash out off the atm last night - HALLELUJAH. As we were actually down to our last 150 rupees between us and it was getting prettttty desperate - so much so the water was being rationed. Cheers Indian banks, cheeeeers! So all i want now is a shower/bucket of cold water to freshen up and get to the jetplane and feel like a human being again as its been 3 days since I last washed or was in a bed.

to be continued....x

FTW-Played The Funky Tool White Boi- Photos by Tris Hall

FTW-Minimalinimanist- By Tris Hall

FTW-Fish-nets- By Tris Hall

FTW-Sweet Animals- By Tris Hall

FTW-10:15-

FTW- The Analogue Tape Glove by Niall Quinn & Ollie Wilshen

This interactive sound installation deals with exploring the physical connection between people and technology. A tangible user interface, taking the form of a glove is worn by the participant as they are invited to interact with an analogue tape surface. As the glove comes in contact with the tape, sound is generated and can be manipulated via touch and movement. This piece intends to explore the somewhat obsolete medium of tape through a playful and sonically interesting experience, appealing to a wide audience. The pre-recorded sound on the tape is a random collage of compiled material including a range of musical styles & found recordings.
This piece is informed by works such as Nam June Paik’s “Random Access Music” and Stockhausen’s Tape experimentations as well as the notion of using analogue tape as an instrument

FTW is very pleased to show you work from these two ever growing artists. Niall Quinn (a North London boy) and Ollie Wilshen (a West Country lad).They have been friends since they started at Brighton uni (and finished with flying colours) They both studied MAVA (to the civilians who don’t know, it stands for MUSIC AND VISUAL ART). The idea for this work has been in the making for some time but they have finally finished it and the outcome is amazing. The only thing that we wanted to see was it on a bigger scale but due to the time and space they had they could not achieve this. Apart from that the tape glove was stunning, it seemed to have a mind of its own by only selected some people to really experience what the boys where trying to do/show. By having this random selection it gave the tape glove some power over its audience like getting picked last in the playground for football. The audience members that got it right seemed very happy with themselves like they have just learnt how to play “stairway to heaven” for the first time. The other lot who just didn’t seem to get anything from the tape glove stared at Niall and Ollie like they just broken one of the lads soldering iron (and a soldering iron to these boys is a must). But aside from the tape glove only selecting the coolest people to work for (FTW got the first go) the whole experience was truly brilliant. When you look at the work you see a board covered in stretched tape (from a cassette) which in itself is very interesting. They way the boys have put the tape (which is the string of a guitar for the piece) on a board stuck on a wall is something I wasn't expecting. When the punters put the glove and started to mess around with the tape their heads would lean towards the board as if they were trying to pick up the sound from the actual board by doing this they have given whoever has the glove on a platform, the board works like a stage. As not a huge fan of interactive art this has made me think twice, what works best for this piece is when something was not working right and the glove was not picking up anything and it seemed to be broken or on standby but the audience member didn’t stop moving the glove up and down almost like stroking the tape back to life. The tape and glove act as a living thing it can go in moods it can choose not work and it also can be playful and choose to make some truly amazing sounds. This piece of work has so much room to evolve. This is stage one for the tape glove and Niall and Ollie and at FTW we really hope we can see this work again.

In the tape glove we trust.