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Last night I went to see this - Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds, based on the book by H.G.Wells.

You can read all about the original 1978 concept album here.

The show was a faithful rendition of the album with all live performers, many of them from the original album, band and full string orchestra. Even Richard Burton made an appearance as a computer generated animation lip-synched to his original recording.

So, how was my second trip to The O2 (to see Madness last week - fun, but they’re clearly getting a bit old) in just over a week?

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I’ve just got back from a week’s holiday in Mexico with my good friend Tom. We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe resort near Akumal, on the Yucatan Peninsula, about 60 miles south of Cancun. The weather was fantastic all week, hot and sunny and only once started to rain as we were sitting in the aeroplane waiting to head back home.

We ended up having quite an eventful trip …

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Select: A Night with Mark Titchner was part of this Friday’s Late at Tate Britain night. The theme of the presentation was “the psychology of excess, control and altered states.” - sounds like a pretty normal Friday night, then.

You can read about Mark Titchner here and here.

This is an example of his work:

I thoroughly enjoyed the films he’d gathered together, so for the benefit of those of you who missed the event, I’ve put together a list of all the video clips he used, with links to the actual video where possible. Enjoy

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I don’t really celebrate Halloween as such. It isn’t much of a festival, despite the commercial multitudes trying to turn it into one. However, I have a couple of Halloween parties coming up, so I thought I’d best be prepared.

I made an ordinary pumpkin lantern out of my first pumpkin and enjoyed making it so much that I thought I’d turn the spare pumpkin into something more elaborate.

This site has plenty of instructions on how to do this. I used their skull pattern (obviously) to make mine.

In case you’re wondering where the title of this article came from, you can click here.

It’s been a busy weekend. I’ve been out for each of the last four nights and each of those nights has involved loud music and staying out late.

This picture is from Friday’s Mobile Clubbing event which was held at Tate Modern.

Mobile Clubbing is a bizarre experience which involves turning up at a pre-arranged time and place (pre-arranged via the internet, of course!) and dancing to your personal stereo, along with a horde of strangers. The Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern was a perfect venue for this. Even the artwork currently on display conveniently allows plenty of room for people to dance around in the open space.

And speaking of the “artwork” … I guess it is pretty much obligatory for me to offer my comment. Being fair, the hall was very busy when I got there, so I couldn’t really take in the awesome wonder of a hole in the ground all at once. Being realistic, though, it is a hole in the ground. Neat idea with the name, though - Shibboleth. Only this time I think the Shibboleth is meant to flush out pretentious art critics and not the Ephraimites.

And that was just the start of the weekend clubbing experience …

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Sometimes it seems like you just can’t keep me away from Thorpe Park. You can read about previous visits here and here.

First off, here’s the obligatory rollercoaster picture:

Flying Fish isn’t the wildest ride in the park, so I was able to get a couple of on-ride shots like this taken at arm’s length. It isn’t the best picture in the world, but I include it for historic reasons. It is the first picture of me for a couple of years where I don’t have a moustache. Haven’t decided if I’m going to stay that way yet.

This trip to Thorpe Park was a bit of an experiment…

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Had a great weekend, doing all sorts of things, finishing with an impressive fireworks display at the Thames River Festival.

OK, so photography isn’t my main area of expertise …

I really like this festival. It has a friendly fun atmosphere that I find totally lacking at the Notting Hill Carnival. Because it is on a smaller scale you can get much closer to the action. If you’re really keen you can get right into the action, in fact. Whether it is experience that means I know where to stand, or if it is just the way things work, it is possible to get a perfect view from the kerb as the night procession goes past right under your nose.

So, what else did I get up to this weekend?

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I wasn’t sure which picture to put in this blog entry. There’s plenty I could write about - I even have a decent sized selection of possible pictures I could use. I chose this one because … well, Prince wouldn’t let me take any pictures at his concert, which is what this entry would have otherwise been about …

I took this at London Zoo at the weekend which I visited with my parents. We were fortunate enough to have nice weather and had a very pleasant afternoon strolling around trying to find an animal, any animal that was actually doing something. Anything!?!
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Seems strange that the Tour De France should come to England. I guess we’re neighbours, at least.

The picture below is from the Prologue stage around Central London.

As luck would have it …

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I took advantage of this bank holiday weekend’s miserable weather to do something indoors. I went to see Antony Gormley’s Blind Light exhibition at The Hayward Gallery.

If you’ve been out in central London recently you may have noticed a few of these fellows standing on roof tops along the banks of the Thames. What are they doing there?

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